Chapter Two: Suppliers and Demanders

Manny walked through the back alleys of her neighborhood, waiting to meet up with Benny Martinez, her supplier.

Manny wasn't exactly sure how she had gotten into this. Just one night in the projects she was hanging out with her friend Rosa and they ran into Benny. Benny suggested Manny sell for him at Degrassi, and that was it. Pretty soon, everyone who was down for some action was coming to Manny trying to buy off her.

Things came to a head when Jimmy approached her two months ago, and suggested they go into business together. Jimmy had mega connections in Toronto and a disposable income, so Manny knew it was a good idea. Somehow, Craig managed to come along for the ride. He had been betting on just about everything since middle school, and brought his gambling tendencies with him to Degrassi. Once Manny joined forces with her ex-flame Craig and Mr. Popularity Jimmy, their stock really took off.

Manny was startled out of her thoughts as Benny Martinez came around the corner.

"What's up, chica?" Benny asked.

"Hola, Benny. Como estas?" Manny replied.

"Can't complain. So, let's get to business, I have other places to be." Benny answered. "What can I do for you today?"

"Alright, Benny, I've got a project for you, and I need it by tonight." Manny said. "In about four hours."

Benny was taken aback. "Damn, chica, that's a lot of work. Tell me what it is and I'll see what I can do."

Manny pulled out her wallet. "Alright, here's eighty for a gram of blow, and twenty for a quarter bag of grass, for personal friends of mine, so make sure you get the good stuff. Now, the rest? I'm gonna need 4 eight balls, 20 rolls, two grams of crystal, and about 50 drops. Can you do that?"

"Got a big job tonight, chica?" Benny asked, taking the money from her.

"You could say that." Manny replied. "Can you do it or not?"

"Yeah, I got it. I'll meet you back here at six."

"Alright. I got one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"Dean Marin. What do you know about him?"

"He's the biggest dealer in Toronto, and you and your friend are competition." Benny replied.

"I know that, but what do you know about him?"

"About twenty two, gringo, about 5'11, brown hair. Doesn't do drugs, but makes a killing selling them. Why do you wanna know?"

"Just wanna get a leg up on the competition, that's all. Do you know where he hangs out?"

"He frequents the Solid Gold strip club in Toronto. Chica, if I were you, I wouldn't cross him. He's pretty powerful."

"I'm not gonna cross him, Benny. Thanks for the info. I'll see you back here later, alright?"

"You got it, chica. Adios."

Manny walked off in the direction of her house, and Benny watched her go, shaking his head.

That girl had no clue what she was getting herself into.

Meanwhile...

Craig and Jimmy were standing at the front door of the Kerwin/Isaacs house, waiting.

"Man, why did I have to come with you?" Jimmy complained. "I don't wanna deal with Ashley."

"Hey, you're preaching to the choir, man. I don't wanna deal with her either. But I have business to attend to." Craig replied. Jimmy rolled his eyes and stared at the door. A moment later, it creaked open.

Ashley Kerwin took one look at her visitors and rolled her eyes. Both of her ex-boyfriends on her front step. Celebration. She sighed. "What do you two want?"

Suddenly, her stepbrother, Toby Isaacs shoved her aside. "They're here for me, Ash. Come on in, guys."

"What's up Toby?" Jimmy asked.

"Not much, man. Come on, let's go upstairs."

Jimmy and Craig followed Toby up the steps to his bedroom, where JT Yorke was currently hanging out. Toby shut and locked the door.

"Alright, JT and I have spent the last few afternoons and nights hacking, downloading, recoding, and ripping everything you wanted." Toby said, taking a disk out from under his mattress. He popped it in his computer disk drive and punched in the run command. A few seconds later, a graphic that read "Shadow Walkers 3" emblazoned with a skull and flames appeared on screen.

"Isn't that the new RPG game that's not going retail for another 3 months?" Jimmy asked.

"That be the one." Toby replied. "I programmed it playable for PC, Mac, Gamecube, and Playstation, and recoded it so no one will be able to recopy or burn this."

"Nice." Craig said, taking the disk out of the drive. "And this is non- traceable?"

JT snorted. "He only re-routed his IP address about two hundred times."

"They'll be trying to bust someone in Istanbul for it, I'm sure." Toby mused. "Okay, gentlemen, that's 25 copies like you asked for, now all I ask for is payment."

Craig pulled his wallet out and flopped a handful of bills onto Toby's desk. "That's 25 copies at 25 bucks a pop, Toby. Oh, and here's a list of some other titles we may be interested it. We're still working on a buyer's list."

"Alright, thank you." Toby said.

"Well, we'd love to stay and chat, but we have a few deliveries to make." Craig said.

"Later." Toby said.

Craig and Jimmy let themselves out, and began walking down the street.

"Video games." Jimmy said, staring at Craig.

"Video games." Craig repeated.

"Why?" Jimmy asked.

"Why not?" Craig replied. "Come on, Jimmy, the nerds of Degrassi have been clamoring over this game for months now. Why not bring it to them a little early? I have a list of guaranteed buyers, willing to pay 100 bucks each for this shit, man! That's twenty five hundred dollars! Think about it."

Jimmy shrugged. "Guess you're right."

"Come on, we have to drop these off at the geeks' houses, then we have to get to the hockey game in time to see if we can run a few more bets." Craig replied.

"I'm on it. But I gotta leave the game early, get my shit together for Toronto." Jimmy said.

"Cool with me." Craig replied. The two walked faster down the street until they reached the Van Zandt house. Craig rang the doorbell and waited impatiently. A moment later, Liberty Van Zandt answered the door.

"Liberty! How's it going?"

"Fine." Liberty replied. "You got SW3?"

"You got the green?" Craig responded.

Liberty held a crisp one hundred dollar bill in her fist. "What do you take me for, Manning?"

"A very good customer." Craig replied, taking the bill from her and handing her the CD.

"You think you can get me a copy of Dreamsweeper 5?" Liberty asked.

"Already on it." Craig replied. "Love to stay and chat, but we have other buyers waiting on this."

"Alright. Later."

A few more stops, and Craig and Jimmy were on their way to the hockey game.

Manny made her "appointment" with Benny to get her inventory, which she had promptly stuffed into her duffel bag. Except, of course, Craig and Spinner's stuff. Those went into the toes of her shoes. She had an interesting outfit packed for the rave tonight. Her friend Maria had called it "street walker attire" but Manny didn't care. She knew she looked hot in it. A red lace up corset, black miniskirt, black thigh-highs with matching garter belt, and black stilettos. That went stuffed into her duffel bag, along with her inventory, and a more comfortable outfit to sleep in. She hailed a cab to the game, paying the cabbie and walking inside. Looking around the arena, she quickly spotted Craig, Jimmy, and Spinner. Paige, Marco, Ellie, and Hazel were with them. Manny walked over to the bleachers.

"Hey, Craig, Spinner, I need to talk to you." Manny said.

"About what?" Spinner asked, glancing at Paige. Manny gave him a Look.

"Oh!" Spinner said. "Okay. Come on, Craig."

Spinner, Jimmy, and Craig followed Manny toward the bathroom. After a quick look around, Manny toed off her right sneaker, reaching inside it and pulling something out. She hugged Spinner and slipped it into his pocket.

"Now, that is prime Columbian shit, cut twice, no fillers. My supplier just got back from Miami. If you like it, I can get you more. Alright?" "Alright, sounds good." Spinner said.

Manny toed off her other shoe and repeated her earlier process with Craig. "Finest grass in Canada, Craig. Again, if you want more, I'll get you more."

"Cool." Craig said.

"Tell me I didn't just see what I thought I just saw." A voice exclaimed.

Everyone groaned. Paige.

Paige approached Spinner and reached into his pocket, pulling out the baggy Manny had slipped in just a few moments earlier.

"Coke, Spin?" Paige asked, staring at him.

"Paige, I can explain..." Spinner replied.

"Damn right. Why aren't you sharing?" Paige asked. Everyone did a double take.

"What?" Spinner asked, confused.

"You honestly don't think I stay in a size 2 by exercising, do you?" Paige said with a giggle.

"Um...no?" Spinner replied.

"So, you guys got anymore?" Paige asked, looking at Manny and Jimmy.

"Um...I...uh...we don't..." Jimmy stammered.

"We don't sell, Paige." Manny said weakly.

Paige rolled her eyes. "Come on, guys. Everyone in school knows, it's just no one says anything."

"Right. Well, Manny and I have to bounce, we have stuff to do." Jimmy said.

"Where you going?"

"Um, nowhere, we just..." Paige gave Manny another Look, and Manny sighed. "Toronto." She resigned.

"Toronto huh? For that rave?" Paige asked.

"Something like that." Jimmy replied. "Now we have to go, so if you'll excuse us..." Jimmy and Manny turned to leave, when Paige's voice stopped them.

"We're coming with you." Paige called. Jimmy and Manny turned around.

"What?" Jimmy asked.

"Spin and I are coming with you." Paige replied simply.

"Nuh-uh. No way. This is business, Paige, not fun." Manny replied.

"Look, hun, it's real simple. Either Spin and I come with you, or I tell that security guard over there what you have in your bag, Manny. But don't worry, Jimmy, I'm sure he'll be surprisingly gentle with that rubber glove."

Jimmy and Manny looked at each other and sighed.

A few minutes later...

"I can't believe you let her come." Manny muttered to Jimmy as she, Jimmy, Spinner, and Paige squeezed into the backseat.

"I'm not fond of cavity searches, Santos, and I'm sure you're not either, so we had no choice." Jimmy muttered back.

"So, this rave...who's DJing?" Paige chirped.

"Don't know, don't care." Jimmy replied. "Look, this is business, Paige. Don't go screwing things up. We have to go to the hotel first, we have some stuff to do."

"Like what?" Paige asked.

"Get ready for the rave." Manny said.

"Get ready for a rave? What could you possibly need to do before a rave besides have a few shots?" Paige asked.

Later...

"Step on it again. Really hard." Manny told Jimmy. Jimmy stomped down on the baggie lying on the floor with his boot until he heard a crunching noise.

"There it goes." Manny said, picking it up and dumping its contents out on the table. "Gimme the lax."

"What exactly are you guys doing?" Paige asked.

"Replenishing our supplies. Most people at a Rave don't want to buy an eight ball. Most of them are already rolling and we don't want to kill anyone." Jimmy explained.

"Okay, that about does it." Manny said after about an hour of she and Jimmy working at a feverish pace. "You guys ready?"

Paige got up off the bed. "Finally!"

"Alright, let's go hit this Rave." Jimmy said, pulling on a jacket. He held open the hotel room door for Manny, and she walked out. As she did, Jimmy watched her backside and legs move. The straps of the garter led Jimmy's eyes up exactly where they were supposed to. He took in a deep breath.

Tonight was going to be an interesting night.