Ellie entered the halls of Degrassi CS that morning visibly disturbed by what had occurred just minutes before. She kept bumping into other student, but didn't seem to notice. Her thoughts were preoccupied with crucial decisions, and couldn't be bothered with something as trivial as walking. Her eyes were bugged out of their sockets. The heavy breathing of her lungs was unable to maintain a stable pace. Her right hand frantically snapped at the rubber band on its left counterpart; as if doing that long enough would magically deliver an answer to all the problems in her life.

A bell chimed through out the building and it thrusted her out of the trance. Ellie made a bee-line for her locker. As soon as she opened it, she retrieved the marijuana out of its hiding place and snuck it out of sight in her locker. She didn't feel comfortable carrying that around school all day. She took a long breath to calm her down, but just as she did, Marco's head appeared from behind her locker.

"Ta da!" He said, as he modeled his interesting ensemble. "What do you think?"

She couldn't stifle her laugher. "Jeez, Marco. Everybody already knows you're gay. You don't have to keep reminding us."

"Hah, hah, hah. Look who's talking." He bit back.

"And what is wrong with my outfit?" She questioned.

"Nothing, except Hot Topic called and they want their clothes."

She teasingly stuck out her tongue and Marco playfully tried to grab it, sending her into a fit of giggles.

"Is that a smile I see Ellie Nash? I haven't seen one of those in a while," Marco admired.

"I guess I have kind of taken Ashley's title of "Queen of Gloom & Doom". I haven't exactly been the happiest person to be around lately."

He nodded in agreement, but sympathized with his friends. He knew things weren't easy for her. "Elle, I understand. Sean was a jackass for leaving a great girl like you behind, but you're strong. You are much stronger than anybody else I know. Which is why I know you'll be okay. And even though money's really tight for you right now, you'll make it. I believe in you. And things will start to look up for you."

She didn't know how he could be so optimistic about all of this. Despite that, she was very grateful for Marco and took him in a warm embrace to show her appreciation. As his hands moved behind her, he accidentally knocked her books and a binder out of the locker.

"Clumsy me," he said as he went for her books.

Ellie noticed that the bag of marijuana had also fallen out and stuck out a little underneath her binder. She quickly dove for the binder, but so did Marco.

"Oh I've got it, Elle." He attempted to pick it up, but Ellie wouldn't let go. "I said I've got it." He stated confused.

"Marco, thanks, but I can pick up my own stuff." She quickly snatched the binder out of Marco's hand and held it to her chest. She gently slipped the bag inside her binder's pocket so that Marco wouldn't notice. He watched her questionably, but didn't say anything. Since she didn't want to risk him sneaking a peak at the bag, she decided she would keep it in the binder at least just for first period. Ellie excused herself, and headed into the direction of her first period class. On her way there, her binder was stolen right out of her arms unexpectedly.

It was Jay; she rolled her eyes. "Give that back." She said forcefully. She reached for the object, but since he was taller he held it in the air out of her reach.

"Not until you tell me who that was you were chatting with this morning." Ellie jumped up in down in the hall while Jay played keep away with her binder.

"None of your business." She prayed the bag of marijuana would not fall out of the binder.

"Well whoever he was, he looked like a jackass coming into The Dot with all that platinum jewelry on. Who the hell does he think he is?"

"For the record, he was just a friend."

"Oh, and earlier he just wanted directions." He waited for a reaction, but she wasn't giving him one. "He was practically salivating over you. Everyone could see it."

"Why do you even care, Jay?"

"I don't care! It's just that Cameron is my boy, and I can't let his girlfriend hook up with another guy while he's away. That's scandalous."

"Oh give me a break! You are right, Sean isn't here. And since nobody knows when he'll be coming back, I can talk to whomever I want. Now, maybe if you were more concerned with your own girlfriend than Sean's, maybe you would have noticed that she's pretty pissed off at you right now."

He seemed angered by her comments regarding him and Alex. "Whatever. I was only watching out for you because Cameron asked me too. But I see that..." She cut him off.

"Sean asked you too look out for me?! When?"

"He called me..."

"He called you? I don't believe this. And he had the audacity to ask you that? What the hell? If he is so worried about my well being, he can just come down here and see for himself!"

"You're over reacting."

"Don't tell me I'm over reacting!" She shouted so loudly, everyone in the hall was watching the argument take place. Ellie finally grabbed her binder back from Jay; lucky for her the marijuana didn't fall out.

But that was the least of her concerns. She was very angered by the fact that Sean could call Jay, but couldn't call her. And, to actually ask him to watch over her like she was some small child who couldn't take care of her. Who does he think he is, her dad? She thought he was her boyfriend. She had to keep her emotions in check or she was going to burst right then in there. Ellie retreated to her classroom, holding onto the binder with its precious cargo, oblivious to the prying eyes. Jay stood there impressed by the fact that she had the balls to tell him off.

Later that day, Ellie sat in the cafeteria at lunch time. For the past few weeks, she spent her lunches with Marco, Ashley, Paige, Hazel, Spinner, and Craig. She wasn't very good friends with Hazel, Spinner or Craig, but she felt more comfortable eating there than with Sean's friends. She just felt out of place with them since Sean wasn't there. And plus, she didn't feel like seeing Jay after what happened. They were all anticipating Jimmy's return. She couldn't add too much to the conversation because she didn't know Jimmy that well either, so she kept quiet. She was just glad they weren't discussing her little outburst earlier.

Her attention drifted around the cafeteria and at the diverse Degrassi faces. All the lunch tables were divided up into cliques and somehow she, Miss Goth Girl, ended up at the popular table. How ironic, she thought. There were the drama geeks, the nerds, the skaters, the punks, the jocks, and the stoners. She focused in on the stoners.

All the students knew about the stoners. It was so obvious they were all drugged out, it surprised her that the teachers never did anything about it. Their eyes were always bloodshot, their clothes smelled of smoke; how they had time for school was anybody's guess. They were also known as the slackers because they never did anything worthwhile and were generally regarded as having no future. Ellie pondered her options.

Through all of this, she had been tapping on her binder monotonously. Planning to put it back after first period, she had completely forgotten She couldn't believe she had been walking around school with drugs in her binder for so long.

If she was really going to sell grass at school, she might as well sell it to one of the stoners. It's not like they don't already do drugs. Sure, she'd be contributing to their deviance, but they would still be druggies even if she wasn't the one selling it to them. She might as well make a profit off of their bad habit. Ellie knew her reasoning was screwed up, but at that moment she didn't care. She was really going for it.

She zeroed in on Parker Pierce, a guy in her history class. Sitting in the back, he always slept through class. He probably didn't even know she was in his class. He stood up from table, threw his lunch away, and walked away towards the hall. This was her chance and she had to take it.

She quickly excused herself from the table, then followed behind Parker. He cluelessly went on his way, navigating through the halls. She followed him all the way outside, near the bleachers where he stood underneath there lighting up a cigarette out of site. She hid behind a tree, watching him, until it was time to make her move.

"Hi," she said casually, coming up from behind him.

"Hi." He looked Ellie over with approval. "Do I know you?"

"No, I don't think so. I saw you over here and I just thought I would say hi." She figured she could be a little flirty with him and that might win him over. She twirled her hair and smiled coyly.

"Want a ciggy?" offered Parker.

"No thanks. So is that the only thing you smoke?"

"No. I smoke pot."

"Eh? That's interesting to note. Do you want to buy some right now?"

She piqued his interest. "You got some on you ?" She nodded. "How much?"

"How you much you willing to pay for this?" She took out her bag of marijuana and paraded it in from of him. He seemed very impressed by her offer. In response, he flashed a single bill in front of her face.

"Woah." Shock came over Ellie's face. She was not expecting it to be that much. They secretly traded the items and checked around the area to make sure nobody was spying on them. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise. We'll have to do this again sometime. I'll let my friends know where to get some good service."

And that was it. It was done. She sold drugs. She did what she didn't think she could do. It was a lot easier than she expected and she couldn't believe that she just got away with it. This was easily the worst thing she had ever done, and she'd done a lot of shameful things, but never like this. Probably most surprising to her was she didn't feel guilty at all. She expected to feel some guilt or remorse that she had just broken the law, but she just didn't. Why should she? She was just doing what she had to do, right? Ellie just made more money in a second than she would have made in a night's worth of work at the movie theater.

Ellie went back inside the school building in search of a payphone. When she spotted one, she pulled out some loose change and took out an all too familiar piece of paper. Jerome answered the phone and knew immediately it was Ellie.

"Ellie, back for more? You took care of that business transaction, I presume."

"Yeah, I did. I'm willing to sell more for you. But nothing hard, just pot."

"Alright. We can make that work. When would you like your next supply?"

"This afternoon at The Dot. I'll be there."

Ellie said goodbye and hung up the phone. A bell signaled the end of lunch; it was time for her to go to class.