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Chapter Five
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"Hey, Marco!" On Monday, Marco turned around to his best friend and ex-girlfriend as she walked over. Her red hair was pulled back into a single, straight braid. Ellie Nash asked, going for the straightforward approach, "Why haven't you answered my calls this weekend?"
"Hello to you too, Ell."
She fixed a stare. "I want an explanation." He continued walking down the busy hallway of Degrassi.
"I was at Dylan's." Her black lined eyes narrowed intrigued.
"Doing what exactly?"
Marco gave her a big smile. "Wouldn't you like to know..." Ellie shoved him playfully.
"You are keeping something from me, Del Rossi. Am I going to have to ask Dylan about it and become his new best friend, then tell him all of the embarrassing things you have mentioned to me?"
His jaw dropped. "I'll kill you."
Ellie smirked, a predatory glint in her eyes.
"Then, tell me."
He rolled his eyes. There was no way he couldn't anyway. When she was determined, she was... well, determined. "Okay. We had our date on Friday. I kind of...gotbeatenupinthepark-"
Ellie interrupted, her hazel eyes flickering with shock, "YOU WHAT!"
Marco said strictly, looking around as curious onlookers peered, "Do you want to hear the story, or not?" She crossed her long sleeved arms and he carried on, "Anyway, I guess I freaked really bad and couldn't go home. So I slept over at his house and the police came to ask me the same questions they had before. After they left, Dylan tried to cheer me up by taking me on a rollerblading ride/lesson."
She giggled. "You've never been rollerblading before, that must have been a disaster." Marco gave her a withering look.
"Thank you Miss Obvious. But it wasn't a total disaster untill his parents came home and brought an old friend of Dylan's over for dinner." Ellie winced. "So, I sorta starting walking out and Dylan stopped me. He drove me home."
Marco paused and she pressed, "What happened? I know you're not telling me everything." He smiled hazily.
"There was a kiss and it was...perfect."
"I'm happy for you Marco." She hastily hugged him, and he grimaced. Ellie pulled away quickly. "Are you alright?"
Marco forced a smile. "Yeah, just the bruises."
"There's a black eye and cut as well."
He replied dryly, as they turned a corner, "Glad you noticed." They made their way down the empty hallway to a set of lockers. As soon as Marco saw them, he knew something wasn't right. On his locker scrawled with black permanent locker... in big bold letters was... Homo and Gaywad. Marco stopped in front of his locker. The words seemed to jump out at him.
In the distance, he could hear mumbles and some laughter.
Ellie looked at his locker and fumbled through her backpack. "I know I've got a rag in here somewhere..."
He protested, opening his locker, "That's fine, Ell. . .it's just fine. . . ." Marco grabbed his books and left in a hurry, "See you later." He walked off, attending his first class. Mr. Simpson was back from a break. Marco worked on his 50-point project alone. Media Immersion ended quickly and he saw Ellie awaiting for him at the classroom door. She gave him a semi-cheering grin, taking his arm and walked with him back to their lockers. Marco broke the silence. "So, how have you and Sean been?"
To his surprise, she went pink. "Fine. We went on a date."
"How'd it go?"
Ellie shrugged casually, "Alright, we saw a movie." Marco smiled.
"So, I'm not the only one who had fun this weekend." She glared at him and went to her locker. Marco's eyes wandered down the hall back to his locker. He saw a large group of people standing around it, both students and teachers. His friends were in the crowd, slightly gaping at the crud words. Inwardly, he groaned.
A voice said sharply, "Mr. Del Rossi!" He frowned, looking to Mr. Raditich, who was giving him an unreadable look, "Please come with me to my office." Marco made eye contact with Ellie who nodded. He walked without her through the mob. They were all staring at him. He saw that homophobic Jay and his buddies were snickering at him. Marco's gaze remained locked on the floor as he followed Mr. Raditch into his small office. He sat in a stiff chair and saw that a petite woman with thick glasses sat in another chair beside Raditich's. Marco heard the man say audibly, "Mr. Del Rossi, do you have any idea on who could have defaced your locker?" Marco shook his head stubbornly.
Mr. Raditich sounded a bit angry as he pushed away some papers, "You do realize that lying to the principal would-" The woman got up suddenly and whispered in his ear. He looked troubled, "Oh... Really? ...Okay then, Mr. Del Rossi, I believe that you aren't aware of the hooligans. Do you want me to call your parents to-?"
Marco shouted, his head lurching up, "NO!" The two adults blinked and he sputtered, "I - um, I mean, that's okay. I just want to get back to class."
"Yes. Yes, the janitor will get to work straightaway with the mess. You may go."
Marco got up thankfully, and left. The woman opened the door for him, flashing him a smile.
Craig, Spinner, and Jimmy were standing just outside the main office. They went over to him.
"What did Raditich say?"
Marco answered Craig's question, "He asked if I knew who did it, I didn't know."
"Are you sure about that?" Jimmy asked with a frown.
He nodded, feeling horrible for lying to him, "Yeah."
Spinner was watching him and Marco had the sudden impression that he knew he was lying, and knew about the incident. After all, he was Paige's boyfriend... for all he knew, she probably told him. Jimmy patted his shoulder benevolently and looked up at the clock on the wall, "Hey, we're going to miss lunch!" They all raced to the cafeteria and Marco let his best friends conversations distract him.
