Disclaimer: I don't...whatever...see chapter 1.

A/N: Here is chapter three for you. I hope I did a little better with the paragraphs. I hope my italics and bold show up but if not, the note between Ellie and Marco is one line each for them...goes back and forth.

Krinklecut: Thank you. I love it when people get hyper over what I wrote.

Wolfie888: Interesting use of a fast food slogan. Thanks.

Skittleschika: Thank you again for a wonderful review. I hope you're still enjoying it.

Dexter: Thank you for reading and reviewing.

SmoothNCreamy: Thank you for reading and reviewing. I love the stuff you write too.

Aisha: Thank you for flaming my flamer. I got a kick out of it. I hope the paragraphs are better. Thank you for reviewing.

Sorry to anyone I may have forgotten. It wasn't intentional. Thank you!

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Chapter Three

The next morning Marco woke up in a good mood for a change. He was actually looking forward to going to school at Degrassi this morning. It wasn't that he didn't like the school or anything, it was just that he did not like changing schools and starting over. However, now he had something to look forward to seeing, Dylan. That and seeing if Paige was going to out him to the rest of the school today. Marco did his work out, showered and got ready for school almost happily. Had his parents been home, they would have probably thought he was doing drugs. Marco left to walk to school earlier than usual.

Marco met up with Ellie outside of school. She was smiling at him as he walked up. "What is with the grin", Marco asked. "I am excited for you", Ellie said cryptically. "Why", Marco asked as they headed for his locker. "You have a meeting...maybe date...with Dylan", Ellie responded almost cheerily. "You have got to lay off the caffeine. It is making you act like Paige", Marco stated simply. "What is wrong with acting like me?" came a voice from his left. Marco looked at Paige and smiled, "Nothing. On you it works, for Ellie...not so much." Paige nodded at him, "Can I talk to you in private a second?" "If it is about you outing me, you can say it in front of Ellie, she already knows", said Marco, smiling at her. "It is and it isn't. I just don't want an audience for this please", Paige begged lightly. "It is okay, Marco. I have to go find Sean and go to my locker. I will see you in first", Ellie said before walking away.

"What is it Paige? Are you here to tell me that you are outing me?" Marco asked with some patience. "No. I am not going to out you. I did out you to Dylan though. He made some sense when he talked to me last night and I want to take his suggestion. I am sorry for the way I acted and for trying to set you up with Dylan", Paige said hesitantly. "Thank you Paige. You are forgiven. It is okay that you outed me to Dylan, he would have found out sooner or later", Marco said smiling at her. "I feel better now. Are you going to out yourself?" Paige asked. "Yes. I will feel better too", Marco said with resignation. Paige walked off and Marco sighed, 'I am finally alone.'

He was a little too quick with that thought as a rather tall blonde leaned against the locker next to his. "We still on for this afternoon?" Dylan questioned. "Yes. How do you want to go about this, since Paige doesn't need to know", Marco inquired back. "Paige has cheerleading today, so I can meet you at my car and we can just go from here." Dylan said with a trace of amusement in his voice. "So that is why you suggested today...you already knew Paige wouldn't find out", Marco said with a sly smile. "Of course I did." Dylan responded with an equally sly smile.

"See you after school then", Marco said walking away from Dylan. Dylan watched Marco walk away, 'Yeah...this is not good. I am already feeling things I shouldn't. He is so cute, nice butt...hmm...these are not good thoughts. I will explore them when I have more time.' Dylan walked in the opposite direction toward his first class. Marco looked over his shoulder at the retreating blonde before walking into his class.

For the first time, Marco could not focus in his class. His thoughts were elsewhere that day. 'Dylan came to find me this morning, how odd. I wonder if that means he likes me. No, I am too young. Maybe he is looking for young since he has already had someone older... He is gorgeous, and that body...wow!... Why is Ellie looking at me? Oh a note.' Marco put his musings on hold while he read Ellie's small, neat handwriting.

I guess wonder boy has more of an effect on you than you let on.

What do you mean?

You are daydreaming in class. You never do that.

I was not thinking about Dylan. I am just tired.

Ha...I knew it. I never said Dylan. You were thinking of him.

Bite me.

Marco tossed the last note back to her and she smiled. She knew she had gotten to him with that one. She felt almost victorious about finding out he did like Dylan. Marco was glad class was over, he needed to get away from Ellie.

Marco managed to get through the rest of his morning classes without any comments about Dylan from Ellie or Paige. He was starting to feel relieved but then lunch happened.

He was sitting with the usual band of merry men when Dylan came up and sat next to his sister. "What do we owe the honor?" inquired Paige. "I need to talk to you. You have practice today right?" asked Dylan. "Yes. Then I am going home. Why?" asked Paige curiously. "Just wondering. I am not going to be home tonight. I have some things I have to do", said Dylan mysteriously. "Like what?" inquired Paige looking at Marco. Dylan saw where his sister was looking, "I need to get together with some of the soccer team. They said there is a new player this year and we are going to try and find out about him." Dylan responded looking over at Marco, trying to clue him in that he already knew. "Whatever, Dylan. I will see you when you get home then"; Paige supplied trying to figure out why he was still there.

"Is there something else you wanted to tell me?" asked Paige with no patience. "Yes, I called Mom to tell her and she and dad are still in Toronto. The conference has lasted longer than it was supposed to, so they won't be home until late tomorrow night", Dylan said easily. Paige nodded at her brother as he got up and started to walk away.

He stopped at the next table to talk to some friends and overheard the next part of their conversation. "Paige, why were you looking at Marco while talking to Dylan?" Spinner asked. "Was I? I didn't notice." Paige said trying to sound bored. "She was looking at me Spinner because she thinks there is something going on between Dylan and I", Marco said with a little annoyance lacing his speech. "Dude, why would she think that?" said Spinner with confusion. The rest of the friends were looking at Marco in shock. "Spinner, I am gay. Paige figured it out and now she is throwing me at her brother. I am beginning to feel like a prostitute." Marco said bitterly.

He didn't really feel bitter but he was trying to make Paige remember he promise to cease setting him up. Paige looked down at the table, blushing slightly. She was embarrassed about what she had pulled last night but felt it was still right to try to get them together. Lunch ended with a weighty silence around their table.

Marco went to his locker and found Dylan waiting for him. "Decided to out yourself before Paige could, I hear." Marco smiled, "Yeah, it seemed like the right idea." "Do you really think she is prostituting you?" Dylan asked with a laugh. "No, I wanted to make sure she didn't try to set me up ever again. I think it worked." Marco said with a small laugh. "Good. See you later." Dylan said walking away. Marco shut his locker and walked away in the other direction chuckling slightly to himself.

Marco walked into his next class and sat down, only to be assaulted by a bossy blonde and her boyfriend. "Why did you do that? I thought you were serious when you said you wanted to keep it quiet." Paige all but yelled at him, causing glances from classmates. "Paige, I am gay. It is a fact that everyone at my old school knew and one that everyone here would know soon enough. I am tired of hiding for these last few weeks." Marco said with conviction. He did not want to mention that he was still afraid she would out him accidentally. Marco liked to think if you did not make a big deal out of it, then what fun would it be if someone else did. He was counting on it.

The news spread quickly through Grade 10. Marco was completely out of the closet by the end of the day and he almost felt relieved. He took it all in stride and got through the day with a smile. He knew he'd be a hot topic until Monday, when someone did something stupid over the weekend causing different rumors. His news would soon be forgotten. After his last class, Marco went to his locker and headed for the senior parking lot to meet Dylan.

After stopping by Marco's locker after lunch, Dylan headed to his next class. He got teased mercilessly by his friends for sitting with his little sister and her friends. He gently reminded them that some of them had developed a crush on his younger sister but never said anything about it. Then he also mentioned that one of those Grade 10s was their new teammate and was to be the new high scorer.

This got them to shut up for about five minutes and then the questions started. "Which one was he? Is he going to be competition for the girl soccer groupies? (Dylan laughed at this but did not say anything.) Does he appear to be a good player?" Dylan thought about this last question for a minute. He recalled the way Marco maneuvered his way past him in the hallway and thought, 'Yeah, he has the moves all right. He has the body for it too.' The questions stopped coming when his friends realized he was not answering.

By his last class, Dylan was more than ready for the day to end. He could not have been more wrong considering the shock he managed to receive during that last class. Dylan had been sitting with his head propped on his hand, doodling absently in his notebook when Chad came in and sat down. He waited until the rest of their friends had gathered before announcing the new Grade 10 starter on the soccer team is gay.

Dylan's elbow slipped off the desk and his head hit the desktop with a thud. He lifted his head and looked at his friend in astonishment. "Dude, you didn't know?" When Dylan didn't answer, he continued, "Wasn't he at your house last night? How could you not know? Don't you have gaydar or something?" Dylan laughed at that, "Chad, how did you find out?" Chad smiled, "My girlfriend is in one of his classes. He announced it to Paige and her lapdog rather loudly. She ran to tell me before this class."

Dylan shook his head, "So you can date a grade 10 but I can't talk to my sister without hearing flack about it? How fair is that? Yes, I knew he is gay before you told me." The guys stared at him for a few minutes. "Why didn't you tell us?" "I didn't think it was important. Is it important?" Dylan asked with a challenge. "No. I did not mean it like that. I just thought...I thought we..." Dylan cut of his friend with a laugh, "You are tripping over yourself on this. Forget it. It does not seem to be an issue with me and it shouldn't be with him." Dylan got nods in return from his teammates and friends. He went back to his doodling, he hated having study hall last period. It made the day drag on forever. He headed straight for his car after the bell rang to wait for Marco.

Marco walked out the side doors to the senior parking lot hesitantly. He was not sure what he was getting himself into but was not about to change his mind now. Marco saw Dylan leaning against the hood of his Thunderbird. Marco felt his heart lurch at the sight of the blonde teen. He looked so cool and casual leaning there chatting with one of his friends.

Dylan turned and saw Marco descending the steps to the parking lot. Dylan felt a tug of desire inside of him for the younger teen. Dylan's friend said good bye and walked away, leaving Dylan with nothing to focus on but Marco. Not a bad thing to focus on under normal circumstances, but this was far from normal circumstances. Dylan knew the tug he felt was not a good thing, 'This is how it started with Charles...the tug of desire, then the friendship and the relationship...leading to the break up, the heartache, and the horrible recovery period. Then again, maybe this could be different...' Dylan ended the thought there. It was getting way too dangerous to even think of Marco that way.

Dylan smiled as the teen got closer and felt relieved to receive one in return. When Marco got to the front fender of the car, Dylan pushed off of it, "Ready to go?" "Yes, I am more than ready for this school day to end." Marco said with a small smile. They got into the car and headed for Marco's house. Neither had any idea what the other would want to talk about but figured it would work itself out.

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I know you didn't think I would forget you two did you?

Kate: I love you. You know it. Thank you for reading this and reviewing. You are my muse and my inspiration...wow 80's song anyone? Anyway, thanks for the courage and the ability to rant when I get nervous.

Feral's Revenge: This chapter is up because of you. Well, and Kate. I enjoyed chatting with you, I hope we'll continue our emails. I hope I continue to please you with the characters and personalities. Marco has a backbone...he just doesn't know it yet. :D

Please Review...I still hand out good Italian food and desserts. Espresso? I would like another 8 reviews before I update again. PLEASE!