Discovering Degrassi

Chapter 2

I raced into my house, shouted to let the rest of the house know I was home, heard grunts of reply, and proceeded to my room. I walked up onto the upstairs landing and heard rock music blasting from my older brother's room. Wincing at the multitude of sound that would surely cause damage to his already small brain later, I walked into my room and deposited my backpack on my bed. As I tumbled next to it I thought about my first day. I had walked in, dreading the worst and came out with a few new friends and a few possibilities in the boy department. I decided that my day's accomplishments deserved a hearty reward, so I walked back down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Hello sweetie," my mom said, her front turned to the stove where she was stirring something giving off a delicious aroma."What's for dinner?" I asked, walking to the refrigerator and grabbing a diet Coke."Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, and Green beans," she said briskly, turning to face me.There was a pause in which I opened my Coke can and Mom added something to the pot containing the green beans. "So, how was your first day?" asked Mom, putting the lid on the green beans, "Did you meet some new friends?"

"Yeah," I said casually. "I met these girls named Emma, Manny, and Liberty, and there was another older girl who said I looked like a cheerleader."

Mom and I snorted with laughter. Being the mother of three boys and only one girl, my mom had always wanted to know about everything going on in my life. I took advantage of my mom's inquiring mind and always told her everything (well, almost everything). She knew that I never was the cheerleading type. I had always gone out for sports where I wanted to be better than the boys, such as Soccer and, for few years, Basketball.

"How was your day?" I asked, sipping more of my drink. Mom turned back to the stove and said, "Well, I got your brothers out of the house and then Dad went off to work and I stayed here and worked on the window treatments for the office. Your fathers been nagging me to do that for the longest time." After a few more moments of silence, I left my mom in the kitchen and headed up to my room and dialed the number to Emma's house.

Sean Cameron walked through the back gate of his brothers house and saw his brother working on his motorcycle. "Hey," he said. "Hey" Sean said back. "How was school? Get in trouble yet?" said Trucker, wiping his hands on a dirty rag."No," said Sean, and not wanting to continue the conversation, went inside and up to his room. He dropped his backpack on the floor and plopped onto the bed face first. He was thinking about school, but not about classes, more about people, especially that one girl. What was her name? Rebecca? Rayna? Oh well. She was new. She had seemed a little shy...Oh well. She'll get used it. He did. Not really the right way though. He'd really screwed that up. God, my whole life is a screwup. He thought. He thought about her a little more and decided that he might try to see what she was like.

"So, tell me everything," said Emma, as soon as she had picked up the phone. I gave her a quick explination of what happened, trying to sound casual. Emma told her over and over again that he was flirting with her, and every time she did, I denied it. "He was just being nice," I said, putting my homework back in my backpack. "Rachel, Sean just doesn't do things to be nice," said Emma, "Listen I need to go, but make sure you keep me updated." "I will," I said, and hung up the phone.

My alarm for school went off and I was awake anyway, so I jumped up and turned it off. At my house I was always the first awake so I went downstairs and open the fridge. Nothing looked good. I was really craving eggs, so I got out a frying pan and turned on the stove. I cooked eggs, poured juice and tosted have of a biscut and sat down to eat. I love breakfast, my favorite meal of the day. My brother walked into the kitchen in a pair of sweatpants sagged really low so that atleast half of his boxers were showing. Gross. Why can't guys just wear their pants normal? "You look exceptionally handome this morning, Nate," I said such a sweet voice that it needed an insulin shot. "Where's my breakfast?" he said, looking around through sleepy eyes. "You can have the rest of mine," I said.

After getting to school and finding my way through the hals I finally found my locker. Again someone was waiting at my locker, but it wasn't Emma or Manny or Mr. Simpson. It was Liberty. "Are you Rachel?" she said in a crisp voice. "Yes," I said. "My name is Liberty. I'm doing an article about how Degrassi appers to newcomers at the school for The Grapvine. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions for the article." "Um," I said, thinking hard about it. I didn't really like undeserved attention, but this was for a good cause right? "Okay," I said.

Liberty pulled a tape recorder and when I finally done answering her questions I tried to open my locker. Lucky for me, it was jammed. Go figure. I tugged and tugged at it. I looked around, trying to find a familiar face that would have me unlock my locker. I saw the guy that had run into me at lunch yesterday. He was in a group of friends. I got nervous. What if he brushed me off in front of his friends? It had never happened to me before, but I had seen enough TV to know that it happens. I looked around some more. No else was coming to my rescue. I gritted my teeth and walked over to that I was in front of him. "Move aside newbie," said one of the guys. He looked really weird. He had really bleached blonde hair and a tough piercing and an eyebrow piercing. He made me really nervous. I looked back at the guy. Oh I wish I could remember his name. He was looking back at with a What-are-you-doing expression. "Do you think you could...um...help with my locker please?" I said. Oh my gosh. Cam I sound any more dumb? Some of the guys started snickering. "Oh, yeah sure," he said and he looked really embarrassed. Great. I felt like such an idiot. He didn't move. "You heard the girl Craig," said a tall black guy. "Go help her with her locker," and he was laughing as he pushed Craig in my direction. "You don't have to," I said suddenly. I just wanted to leave and have them forget about everything that had just happened. "No, it's fine," said Craig, "Go on guys. I'll see you later." The guy with the bleached hair put on a high-pitched voice, "Oh Craig, you're my hero. Thank you so much for helping with my huge disaster of not being able to get my locker open. Craig punched his arm and looked at me as the guys walked away laughing, and I was sure they were laughing at me. "Where is this stubborn locker of yours?" he said. "Over here," I said. It was a lot easier to talk now that the guys were gone. He walked over and held the lock on his hands. He looked at my expectantly. "Oh you want the combination. Sorry," I blushed. I'm a chronic blusher. It's a curse. He laughed. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna steal anything from you." "13-27-2" I said. He twirled the little knob and there was a small click. He pulled at the handle and the door wouldn't budge. Then he kicked the bottom and the door flew open. "Sometimes when it gets stuck you have to kick at it." He said, holding the door open." "Oh wow. I din't even think of that. At my old school we didn't have locks on our lockers instead-" I stop suddenly. I was rambling. "Go on," he said, looking interested. "You didn't have locks?" "Nope," the school was really small so we just had little carabeeners." "What is a carabeener?" he asked, laughing. "You know the little clips that you use wqhen you go rock climbing? We had little versions of those." "Haha. Awesome," he said. "Well, thanks for helping me. I hope I didn't embarrass you in front of your friends," I said, blushing. "Naw It's cool Rachel," he said. My mouth dropped. How did he know my name? He laughed and pointed to my locker door. Right in the middle was a giant magnet that my friends had made for my birthday that had my name on it. "Don't worry about the other guys. Spinner's always a jerk." Spinner? What kind of a name is that? "Well thanks for everything um...what's you name?" I asked. I felt really bad that he knew mine and I didn't know his. "Craig, Craig Manning," he said, doing a James Bond impression. I laughed. I felt like such a idiot. "Well, bye Craig," I said. He smiled and walked away. My heart fluttered. He was so cute. I put my stuff in the locker and rushed off to my first class.

Manny and Emma weren't in the class either. I wondered where they were. Then the morning announcements came on and Liberty came on and said some things. I wasn't really paying attention. We had a news program at my old school but it was really dumb and since it was a private school they had all these special graphics and everything. Suddenly Manny came up on the screen. She made an announcement about cheerleading. "I didn't know she was a cheerleader," I said out loud. Nobody said anything back. Then Emma came on and made an announcement about the Environmental Club's canned goods drive to raise money for the Endangered Turtle Foundation. How cool. I hoped there was something I could do at Degrassi. I wanted to have a cause. But then Sean walked in and I focus all my attention on him. He didn't looked over at me. Ms Kwan called the homeroom to order and I was so absorbed through the whole day that I forgot to tell Manny and Emma about Craig. Oh well, I thought when I got home. Everyone needed their own secrets. This can be one of mine.