Nadia was sitting in her first period biology class listening to Ms. Hatzilakos start to explain the differences between plant and animal cell structures, when suddenly, a commotion could be heard from the hallway outside.

"…I don't want to be friends with a Stuck-up Prude Princess!"

"Good, because I don't want to be friends with the School Slut!"

"Fine, Emma, you and your high standards can be best friends from now on."

"Whatever, Manny."

Ms. Hatzilakos stopped her lecture when it became apparent that her class was more interested in what was going on outside of the classroom than inside.

"Class, settle down." She said as she walked over to the door. When she looked outside, she saw an empty hallway and closed the door back behind her.

"Now as I was saying…" Ms Hatzilakos said, continuing her lesson.

Nadia was partially paying attention. Her thoughts kept going back to the school dance from a few weeks before when Lee and her had kissed. Ever since that night, they had become one of Degrassi's newest couples. They did normal things that couples their age did, like holding hands during lunch and occasionally smooching when they were alone. Brandy and Jamal had nicknamed them the "young lovebirds". Even Kendra had walked away that night with the first place trophy for best costume. But then Nadia looked over to her other friend Allie, sitting two rows over.

Ever since the night of the dance, Allie had been acting very differently. She had stayed home sick for the entire week after the dance. When she finally came back to school, Allie's friends noticed a dramatic change in her personality. When they would try to talk to her, she wasn't her usually cheerful self. She would answer them with either quick one or two word responses or she would just totally ignore them. She didn't seem as concerned about her appearance as she normally did and at lunch she would go off and sit by herself. Maybe Allie was still sick and just didn't feel one hundred percent yet, Nadia thought to herself. Just then the bell rang.

"Okay class I want you to review Chapters 10 and 11. Be prepared for a quiz on Thursday." Ms. Hatzilakos said as they exited.

"Hey Allie, wait up." Nadia called out.

"What." Allie replied.

"I just wanted to see if you wanted to come over to my house tonight and study with Kendra, Brandy, and me." Nadia asked.

"No thanks." Allie said as she turned and quickly walked away.

---------------------------------------------------

Later at lunch Nadia brought up what had happened in class.

"So I invited her to come over and study with us. She said no and just walked away. Do you think we did or said something to make her upset?" Nadia said questioningly.

"Not that I can remember. Besides Allie is the one who likes to tease the rest of us." Kendra pointed out. "Now it's like she's some sort of zombie."

"Yeah, the other day I tried to start a conversation with her and it was like I wasn't even there." Brandy recounted, "When I tapped her on her shoulder, she just freaked out and jumped about ten feet high. I had been talking to her for a few minutes and she accused me of intentionally sneaking up on her."

"I wonder if her and Dean had some kind of fight and she's just feeling heartbroken?" Nadia wondered.

"Maybe she's having family problems. Ever since her parents got a divorce a couple of years ago she has said she was fine with it. Maybe things aren't as great as she's been pretending." Brandy revealed.

"I wasn't going to say anything until I was sure, but the other day I tried talking to her and I swore I smelled alcohol on her." Kendra confessed, "I hope she hasn't started doing drugs or anything like that."

"Listen to us." Brandy interjected, "We've come up with all of these interesting personal problems for her without knowing what's really going on. Maybe we should all go as a group and try to get her to open up."

The three girls walked over to the lone bench where Allie was sitting. She had her knees pulled into her body and her arms were wrapped around them.

"Hey Allie can we talk for a minute?" Brandy asked.

"Go ahead and talk." Allie replied.

"We were just wondering if everything is okay with you?" Kendra questioned.

"Everything's fine."

"It just doesn't seem like you're fine is all." Nadia cut in, "You've just been sort of moody lately."

"What, is there a law against being moody. Am I supposed to be some sort of cheerful idiot all of the time?" Allie snapped back.

"Whoa, you don't have to get all worked up." Brandy interrupted.

"And you don't have to tell me how I'm supposed to act." Allie answered in a hostile tone.

"Nobody's trying to tell you how to do anything." Kendra said trying to reason with her, "We just thought maybe you were having family problems and wanted to talk to somebody about it."

"My problems are my business, not yours. If I wanted to talk to somebody about them, which I don't, what makes you think I would want to talk about it with any of you. Besides all of my problems will be over soon" Allie said as she screamed at the trio.

Allie then got up and walked off, leaving the three girls stunned.

"Do you think she meant what she said?" Nadia said with a worried tone, "Do you think she might do something to herself?"

"I don't know. But I'm going to go find some answers." Kendra replied.

Kendra had recently remembered where she had seen Dean before. It was last year at the boy's basketball tournament. Dean looked a little different, but she was sure he was the guy that J.T. ran out onto the court and started hitting. Dean and J.T. had both been ejected from the game and that was the last time she had seen Dean, until the girls' soccer tournament that is. She walked over to a table where J.T. and Toby were sitting and playing a card game.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Kendra asked.

"About what?" Toby replied in an impatient tone.

"Actually, I was talking to J.T., not you."

Toby got up and walked off without a word. J.T. answered, "Well, what's up?"

"Do you remember that guy you got into a fight with last year?"

"What guy?"

"That guy from Bardell, his name is Dean." Kendra answered.

"What? Why are you bringing that up, especially now?" J.T. wanted to know.

"I just wanted to know what kind of guy he is and why you wanted to fight him?" Kendra explained.

"Trust me, you want to steer clear of him. That's all I can say, but promise me you won't go near him. You have to promise." J.T. asked Kendra.

"Okay I won't, thanks for the advice." Kendra responded.

Meanwhile in the main office Nadia went to see Ms. Sauve, to ask her about the signs when someone may be suicidal.

"So what makes you think your friend may be contemplating suicide." Ms. Sauve asked.

"Well, 'my friend', has started acting completely different and today she made a statement that's got me worried." Nadia replied.

"What did she say?"

"She said all of her problems would be over soon."

"I could see how that might be interpreted as a suicide threat. Do you think she might be serious?" Ms. Sauve said as she probed.

"I don't know. I've tried to talk to her a bunch of times over the last couple of weeks, but all she does is pretend everything is okay or tell me to mind my own business. And it's not just with me, but with all of her friends." Nadia confessed.

"Maybe you should try to get her to come and talk to me. I know you said you didn't want to reveal her identity because you weren't positive yet, but a person that is truly suicidal can be a danger to themselves and not realize it." Ms. Sauve pointed out.

"I'm going to try one more time, but if she won't come voluntarily, then I'll tell you." Nadia promised.

As Nadia left Ms. Sauve's office they walked by Toby, who was waiting to talk to Mr. Raditch about his Holiday-Around-The-World idea using a Hanukah theme. He heard Ms. Sauve reiterate to Nadia that depression and suicide are complex issues and there are no easy solutions for them. If her friend continued to exhibit strange behavior, she wanted Nadia to come back and tell her.

As Nadia wheeled out to the hallway, Toby thought to himself, "Kendra? No way." 

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Kendra worked with a group of students who had volunteered to help her with her Dragon dance. They spent a lot of time learning to move together in unison. Kendra was confident that her contribution to the Holiday pageant would come off without a hitch.

Also that day Nadia noticed that Allie didn't show up for any of her afternoon classes. She was becoming more worried that her worst fears were going to come true about her friend. As if things weren't bad enough, Nadia was also starting to feel bad health wise and that just added to her anxiety. She wanted to tell Lee about her fears of being in the hospital but was afraid it would only scare him away. When she got home she tried calling Allie but got no answer. She knew Allie's mom worked until late in the evening and hoped that nobody answering meant that nobody was home. She voiced her concerns when Kendra and Brandy came over for their study session.

"What did you find out Kendra?" Brandy asked.

"Not much, J.T. didn't really give me any info on Dean. He just warned me to stay away from him and that Dean was bad news."

"He didn't tell you why he fought Dean last year?" Nadia questioned.

"Nothing at all." Kendra replied, "What did Ms Sauve say when you asked her about Allie's statement?"

"She just told me suicide is a complicated problem and for me to come back to her if I needed any help." Nadia answered.

"I asked Jamal if he knew anything about Dean and he asked around with some of the guys at school." Brandy added, "All he came up with is that Dean has a reputation as a major player from Bardell and always has a new girl. Maybe he was cheating on Allie and she found out."

"Yeah, but that still doesn't explain why she's pushing us away." Nadia replied, "She..…" Nadia was cut off in mid-sentence. She felt a sharp pain go through her that made it hard to breathe for a moment. Brandy was scared when she saw her friend convulse in pain, but Kendra knew to get her inhaler. After a few puffs and a minute of relaxing Nadia started to feel better again.

"Are they getting more frequent?" Kendra asked when she felt Nadia was able to answer.

"Not really." Nadia said, hiding the truth from her best friend. "We should talk to Allie tomorrow and make her tell us what's going on."

"You saw how great that worked today." Kendra reminded her.

"Yeah, but tomorrow she either tells us or she tells Ms. Sauve." Brandy concluded.