Chapter Two

Degrassi

Marco stood behind a barbeque, turning the sausages every few minutes, but keeping his attention on the stage, because the band was going to be up soon. It was the day of the barbeque, and the exchange trip students had definitely made enough to cover their trip. The Dot sponsored them, giving them $1,500 to put towards their trip. Joey hadn't been able to donate as much, only coming up with $800, but it didn't really matter, as the Spirit Squad car wash alone brought in $2,575, and the chocolate drive, $1,500. The dress-up day had a gold coin donation, and the concert had a gold coin entry fee. Plus they had sold that many sausages Mr. Simpson had to go out and get more. Ellie wandered over to Marco.

"This has turned out really great, hasn't it?" she said to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Sure has" he replied, giving a 7th grader a sausage in bread. "Wanna take over… I'm gonna be on in a few…" Marco said to Ellie.

"Sure" she replied, taking his apron and the tongs. Marco gave her a quick peck on the cheek before hurrying off to the stage.

A few minutes later Downtown Sasquatch were playing, and they really had the crowd going. Everyone had stopped buying sausages to watch the band. Ellie leaned against the wall behind her as she watched. Emma slid up beside her.

"This has worked out well hasn't it?" she said, watching the band.

"Yeah it has. I'm proud of it. I just hope everything in Australia goes just as well," Ellie said, sighing.

"Here…" Emma said, passing Ellie an envelope. "For once we get into Melbourne." She then walked off. Ellie looked at the envelope and put it into her pocket. 'Strange' she thought to herself.

A week later the group were boarding their plane. The group that was going was Ellie, Marco, Paige, JT, Emma, Manny, Toby, Craig, Alex and… Jay. Ellie was surprised when he said he'd go, even more surprised when his parents agreed to let him go, and even more so again when he showed up at the airport. The group boarded and waved goodbye to their families and did all that sort of thing that you do when you're leaving your loved ones behind for weeks on end.

Hours and hours passed and finally the group arrived in Melbourne. They went through customs quickly, and then headed out to find their host families. They walked out together, Manny and Emma linking arms at the front, looking kinda lost, Alex and Jay bringing up the rear, mucking around and making out. Emma soon spotted a sign over near one of the entries saying "Degrassi Exchange Kids". They headed over to the people standing with the sign and huddled together in a group. Marco headed to the front of the group, Ellie looked like she was about to be sick. She didn't want to talk to these strangers all of a sudden.

"Hi, I'm Marco, and this is Ellie. We're the ones that organised this trip…" Marco began to say, before Ellie interrupted him.

"Sorry bout that. Right well…" she began, trailing off.

A girl from the back of the Australian group moved to the front.

"Right. I'm Devon" she said, waving. "I got a list here that says who's going with who…" Devon began to rummage through her bag. Finally she pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

"ok. Ellie, you're with Cara" Devon began, and Cara came forward and smiled at Ellie. "Hey" she said.

"Emma is with Nat" Emma headed over to a girl that waved to her at the side of the Australian group.

"Manny, with Katy. Alex, you're with Steph. Jay, you're with Kyle. JT… Wait is that your name?" Devon went on to say. JT nodded.

"Anyway" Devon said, shaking her head. "You're with Mark. Toby, you're with Simon. Craig, Benny and Marco, with Jake. That's everyone right?"

Everyone had paired off with their matching host family, except Paige.

"What bout me?" she whined. Alex rolled her eyes, and Mark broke off into song.

"What about me. It isn't fair…" Mark's singing was shortly cut off by Kyle and Benny tackling him to the ground.

"Oh... You must be with me." Devon said, going over her list once again. "Oh. There you are, Paige. Well, then. Lets get going."

The group followed their host family member out to the car park where they were picked up by other family members or taxis.