A/N: It's been a while you guys! Enjoy! I left you a note at the end of the chapter. O and if you catch this little buddy (~) in the story I have something to say that I don't want or is too long to stick in the story and you can find out what at the end. Disclaimer: Noooooo Sir! Mam! And everything in between, do I own Degrassi: The Next Generation or anything affiliated with it! ...What I wish and dream do not count! :P

Friendship and Love Chapter 2

Marco walked home from school Tuesday. He knew Dylan had hockey practice and he wanted to get home so he told Dylan he would hang with him tomorrow. Marco opened his door and Foxy greeted him again. "Hey girl, you wanna go outside?" Foxy barked, jumped and spun around in circles. Marco let her out in the [fenced] backyard. He sat down at a table in the kitchen and pulled out his geometry book. Marco finished his homework in about 90 minutes and went to watch TV in the living room. As soon as he sat down on the couch and got comfortable Foxy started barking to come inside so Marco let her in. She jumped happily around his feet; Marco was playing with her when his mom came home. "Hello Marco" she said with usual glee walking towards him giving a big bear hug. "Hi" he managed to get out even with the extra pressure on his ribs. "You had a nice day then?" Marco rhetorically asked his mother. "I sure did. And you?" "Slightly duller than the last few days." "I see." She said with a pending end..."can we talk?" "Um sure, what about?" "So you broke up with Ellie..." Marco scratched his head a little surprised by her comment "um, yes I did, a while ago." "I see, why?" "uh, it doesn't really matter, we're still friends. I've someone else now and I'm happy." "O, well that's nice. When can we all meet Her?" "Uhm, you aren't going to meet her." "Well why not?" Marco's mom asked clueless and hurt. "You just can't meet her *helloooooo NOT a her, not a her, not a her, not a her*, but I got to go finish some homework" Marco lied. Mrs. Del Rossi started making dinner completely clueless "oh how sweet. Mysterious love, I'll meet her eventually I guess" she thought out loud. *whoa, almost scary how clueless she is* Marco thought.

Marco looked at his watch "Dylan should be home." He smiled at that and went up stairs to give him a call. They talked for a very long time, laughing and chatting about all kinds of things. "You're awesome" came across the receiver. Marco didn't bother to smile seeing as how he hadn't stopped since he picked up the phone. "I know it." They both laughed. Marco looked at his alarm clock "Whoa, Dyl it's almost ten." Dylan laughs "we've been talking a while then...should I let you go?" "I should go, but I don't want to." "That settles it then." The boys laugh and continue talking straight through midnight before they finally agree it's time to go to bed.

The rest of the school week passed quickly...except for the long night chats with Dylan. *This has been such a great week* Marco thought. He and Dylan had done some serious bonding over the phone the past couple of nights. Marco rushed to his locker as the final bell of the week rang. Dylan and Marco had plans to go out directly after school to mall to see a movie. They stopped into a Music store at the mall, they had time to burn before the movie started. Marco was nodding his head to CD he was listening to, (you know, under those big doofy headphones at some music stores) Dylan was just walking around the store and came to a stop beside Marco. Dylan tapped his shoulder "You like that one?" Marco looked and blinked "what?" he said unnaturally loud. Dylan removed one of the earphones "do you like that one?" "Oh yea, it's great" he said smiling. "the movie is about to start..." "Okay, lets go." Marco grabbed Dylan's hand and they went to see the movie. Dylan drove Marco home as soon as they left the mall. "I had a great time, of course. Thank you. See you tomorrow." "bye" Dylan said with a smile. Marco walked up to his house. "hey Marco" Dylan said getting out of the car and walking towards him "you forgot this" he said handing Marco a bag. "That's not mine." "Yah it is, from me to you" he said smiling. Marco opened the bag, Dylan got him the CD he wanted from the Music store "wow, thanks. This is great. When did you...whatever thank you" Marco ended standing slightly on tiptoe to wrap his arms gently around Dylan's neck. In turn, Dylan took hold of Marco's waist. Marco closed his eyes, they boys stood that way for a few seconds before Marco settled down on his feet and smiled up at Dylan. "Thank you." Dylan smiled softly and walked back to his car. When Marco entered the house, it was quiet. He found a note from his mother telling him how Foxy had a vet appointment that afternoon and how she would be home "whenever" after running a few errands with the dog. She left a "P.S." telling Marco she had something exciting to tell him when she got home. Marco figured Nicola was asleep, her car was in the driveway... *it is WAY too quiet for her to be awake...this is why Marco was surprised to find Nicola fully awake in her bedroom. "wow, you're actually-"Marco started only to be cut off by his sister "I feel guilty Marco" she said. "*laugh* Why?" "because, I didn't know you didn't tell mom that you and Ellie broke up and, now she knows" "O, *laugh* whatever, I know she knows, she was talking to me about it the other day" "Really?" "Yea." Nicola wrinkles her nose and purses her lips "that liar! Cross her heart my foot!" Marco laughs and walks to his room.

He had dozed off by the time his mom came home and awoke to a soft tapping on his door. "Come in" he said groggily. Mrs. Del Rossi opened the door "hey hunnie! Guess what!?" "Hey ma." Marco sits up and pushes his hands over his messy hair and yawns "what?" "Me, I, your mother, will be hosting business week at your school!" Marco let his jaw relax and hang open a little bit at an odd angle as his mom continued to talk "I'll get to meet all of your friends and teachers and maybe even that mysterious girlfriend of yours eh'?" she elbowed Marco in the shoulder lightly and left smiling. As she left Marco shook off his blanch stare and allowed his eyebrows to come together as he took in what his mom had just said before he settled back into the odd stare. He sat there for about a minuet; his mind empty before he hopped off the bed and scurried quickly to the kitchen where his mom was "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO, Ma, you cannot, host that business week thing." "OoOoOo Marco, why not?" She started without pause at Marco's cut in "becau-""don't you want me to go?" "uh um, uh no" Marco stuttered trying to sound as nice as possible. "Really?" Mrs. Del Rossi frowned "O, that's too bad, I really want to go...but, I guess...I will! ...you'll live" "Ma, please..." "Marco, come on, what have you got to hide?" *a lot* he thought "what, is it that girlfriend? Don't worry, I was just kidding...I'm not gonna-""I don't HAVE a girlfriend" "but, I thought, did you guys, you said" "I Don't! Ma, I don't" "O, okay...haha, then who's your 'someone else'? A guy?" She laughed at herself oddly waiting for Marco to say something in defense, when he didn't she stopped laughing and turned to say something only to find Marco...not there. Mrs. Del Rossi laughed at herself again and shook off the odd situation "ha, guess I offended him..." she chopped some vegetables "I was just joking Marco!" she shouted not expecting a reply. Marco had gone upstairs trying not to think about all the things his mom could find about just by standing in the hallways of his school in between classes. He listened to the CD Dylan bought him which seemed to sound ten times better because it came from him. He fell asleep listening to it.

The weekend passed oh-to-fast for Marco. Before he knew it, it was Monday morning and he was rummaging through his closet for something comfortable to wear. As Marco passed by Nicola's room, she toppled out of her bed to catch him... "I'm prayin' for you today buddy...if it helps at all, I tried to talk her out of going..." "O-well ((to short of a pause between o and well to be "O, well" and to much of a pause to be "O well!")thanks" he said as he continued down the stairs.

Marco's mom pulled up to his school that morning, this time parking in a "reserved visitor" parking place. "Here we are!" Mrs. Del Rossi stated loudly as she put the car in park. "Yup" Marco said even toned as he grabbed his book bag and got of the car. He spotted Jimmy and tried to make an escape before his mom noticed but it was too late.

"Marco, dear, wait a second, show me where the gymnasium is please." "Okay" Marco said dully as he walked a bit ahead of his mother. TIMING, must have been way off because Dylan walked up right beside Marco and put his arm around his shoulders for a sideways hug. Marco quickly removed Dylan's arm and looked behind himself, scared for what his mom may have seen but he looked quickly. Luckily, she was fooling around with her briefcase. "Well, sorry!" Dylan laughed "Did I do something wrong?" "NO, no!" Marco said as he really did feel bad for brushing Dylan off the way he did "It's just that, my mom...". Dylan continued Marco's statement for him, "has a giant telescope and is spying on you from her bedroom?" "No," Marco said "more like 10 feet behind us" Dylan looked back and saw Mrs. Del Rossi talking to Mr. Simpson "Oh! Oops" Dylan laughed "well" Dylan pats Marco on the back "I'll see you later, man" as he goes for a low five. Marco laughs at him and goes to "give him a five" (LOL) but Dylan pulls away his hand and quickly sticks out his tongue "too slow." Marco makes a face at him resisting the urge to playfully push him "Jerk". Dylan walks off shaking his head. Marco stands there and waits for his mother to finish talking.

"Sorry about that babe" Mrs. Del Rossi says walking towards Marco. "ha, it's okay" Marco says unable to control his laughter at the sweet, but close encounter. "What's so funny?" Mrs. Del Rossi asks. "Nothin'," Marco smiles and points his mom towards the gym.

The first official day of Business week wasn't until Tuesday, Mrs. Del Rossi and other participants came Monday to set up and get acquainted with one another. When Mrs. Del Rossi entered the gym, she was greeted by another involved parent. "HI! I'm Sara-Louise Brown, you are..." "O hello, I'm Angela Del Rossi" Mrs. Del Rossi said shaking the southern woman's hand. "O are you really? Would that make you Marco Del Rossi's mother?" "Uh, yes" Mrs. Del Rossi answers her a with a rushed feeling "I guess you've heard of him then..." she said setting down her briefcase on a bleacher seat, flipping her hair behind her shoulders and setting her face as to seem less interested than she actually was (~). "O yes!" The woman said clasping her hands together, "my daughter, Mackenzie, had the biggest crush on him! Still does, I think *she laughs* I tell her she has to move on seeing how she knows and everything, or seeing as how everyone knows!" she said with an even larger outburst of laughter. Angela (Mrs. Del Rossi) set her jaw to the side and squinted her eyes a bit..."knows what?" she called behind Sara-Louise. "Well duh silly, that's he..." Mrs. Brown stopped short and waited before turning around as a quick flashback crossed her mind...
^"Mom, you were right. So perfect, so cute, so smart, so sweet...so
gay." "o, I'm sorry Kenzie" "yea, I'll get over it, one day... ...
... and mom, if you ever run into him, or his mom or dad or sister
or anything, try not to say anything because he just now came out to
a few people at school and I don't know if he's told his family. I
wouldn't want you to out him when he's not ready, he's so sweet."
"okay dear, I wont."^ "That he what?" Angela pushed. Mrs. Brown had to think quick on her feet. She turned around fiddling with her hands "that he turned her down of course, yes, she knows now that he doesn't like her like that, everyone does." Sara-Louise giggled and turned around with a sudden frown *that was close*

Mrs. Del Rossi stood there *there is something going on, and I seem to be the only one who doesn't know what* she thought arching her brow and letting one of her hands rest on her hip.

Authors [end] note: K, there's a long chapter as an apology for your 4 month wait lol. I am so sorry about that. I was expecting to have the next chapter up a few days after the first (seeing as how it was written the same time as the first chapter lol)... BUT obviously, something went wrong. I had a lot of schoolwork and my laptop was having some messy troubles. The charger ended up breaking on it and my poor ol' fanfic was sitting there in Microsoft word waiting to be put on this very site...months passed (lol) and my dad lent me a car charger so I could charge up my computer enough to do something for school. When I did that, I made sure to e-mail my story to myself so I could work on it from another computer...well I never got to that! I checked on chapter one and saw there had been on 4 reviews (counting my own!) since the story had been posted 3 months earlier. LOL I was mad! I decided I wasn't write ANYMORE to the story! Well, this spring break I got back into reading fan fiction and I re-read my story... that had 5, (count 'em!)five reviews, SO I decided to stop being a butt head and just post more to the story... so there you have it! Hopefully lol you'll get another part before August (4 months from now). I will work on that, but you guys gotta read and REVIEW (flame me, applaud me w/e! I like "please write more" plenty much but it would help me greatly if you would give me some advice, tell me what you liked and what you didn't)!!! Pwease... :) lol Whew! Hope ya liked it!

O and sorry now for any typos or incorrect wording... if there are any mistakes (I'm sure there are, even after my proofing), I don't think they were bad enough to cause and trauma while reading the fic!

(~) okay, I think there was only one of those in the story! My picture of Mrs. Del Rossi is a bit different than the actor they had playing her on "It's raining men" for those of you Canadians who have seen it or Americans (like myself) who have viewed screen captures and or downloaded versions, unless you live close to the Canada/America border and receive CTV lol. I picture(d) Mrs. Del Rossi a bit thinner and taller, young looking but not too young lol and sophisticated. ~~~DOOSH~~~

Next chapter hopefuls:
- A continuation of "Business week"
- introduction to Mr. De Rossi (hmmm, maybe, maybe not)
- another date with Marco and Dylan
- more of Marco and Ellie's friendship plot
- more Nicola and Ellie friendship plot