Monday morning was a disappointment. Sean had been complaing about Emma again, making Craig want to shove his fingers into his ears, and then went on to moan about his detention and how unfair it was.

"You started a fight in the locker room!"

"Yeah, but it was Jay's fault!" Sean protested.

Craig had tried to reason countless times.

"Look, why don't you jsut talk to her."

"Because I don't know what to tell her."

Craig felt as if it was best not to get involved with the whole Emma/Sean situation. After all, she seemed to be getting back on track. He had seen her eating lunch with Manny and Toby, and had even spotted her handing out posters for an enviormental meeting. She was finally getting over last year, and he didn't want to disturb that.

"Ellie and me are broken up. But I still don't know if I'm mad at her for what she did or not."

How pathetic. He coudln't make up his mind as to hate someone or not?

"But you like her?" Craig asked, expecting the worst.

Emma and Manny sat in the sun, eyes closed, soaking up the heat.

"Em." Manny said, her eyes closed, still taking in the rays. "Are you going to the rave?"

"I heard about it. I don't think so."

"No, you should go. Just because Sean doesn't go to raves --"

"It's not because of Sean. He'll talk to me when he's ready, whatever."

"I'm sorry everyone's harrassing you at school about Jay."

"It's not a big deal. I really don't care. I just want to get on with my life."

"So come to the rave. You can get on with your life there."

Persistence was Manny's strong point.

"I don't know."

"C'mon, Em. It would be like last time."

Emma laughed. The last rave had been a disaster.

"Alright. I'll go."

Why did Ashley want to go to the rave? He didn't dance, she didn't dance, and they both hated hip-hop music. When he pictured a night at the rave, he pictured the two of them standing off to the side with no place to go. He pictured out of place. But it's not like that mattered anyway. Ashley pictured lights, sparkles, magic -- which is probably why she had taken him along with her to go shopping for the perfect outfit, which was just so unbearably boring he thought he was going to die. It was one of those moments where you've been stuck in this one tiny room for hours and can't see yourself ever getting out of it. Like shopping with your mother.

Paige suddenly pulled back the curtain to her dressing room, stepping out in what seemed to be a poor excuse for a dress.

"I look horrible." She complained. "Look at this. It looked fine on the manequinn."

Ashley stepped forward, pulling the dress down as if to make it look better. The two of them stared into the mirror. It was obvious where this was going.

"Paige, maybe you should pick out a different dress."

"I wanted this one -- this was the perfect dress."

Craig let himself wander off in his mind while the two conversed -- thinking of unnattainable things... He hadn't talked to Emma in a while. This new feelings thing he had for her really made him feel guilty. But having feelings for someone means letting them take up all your time -- all your mental and physical energy... and -- is it weird that he pictured her in the shower?

"This rave is going to be so great -- I wonder who's gonna be there?"

"Uhh, duh, hun, all of Toronto's been talking about it. Everyone's going to be there."

Accepting the feelings meant not fighting them. But there are certain people in the world who you're going to love, and certain people you should. He owed it to Ashley to love her.

"Umm... what's wrong with Craig?" Ashley asked, looking over to him. He was still off in his thoughts.

Paige looked over, grinning.


"That's boys, hun. No brains to speak of."

She looked back at Craig once more before walking off to change, leaving Ashley and him alone.

"Craig?"

"What?"

"Are you alright?"

Craig felt a tinge of sorrow for her, but it was dissmissed within a moment's time.

"I'm fine. Let's -- what'd you pick?"

Ashley then smiled, spinning around on the spot, displaying herself to the fullest.

"It's nice!" Craig exclaimed, actually meaning it. She looked gorgeous in her outfit, and he was happy that he actually appreciated it.

"This is going to be so great." Ashley said. "This rave, it's going to be so much fun."

"Ash, like, what makes you want to go so bad?" Craig asked.

It was then that he realized how much he meant to her. With her next few actions, she let him know. Taking his hands in hers, she never stopped smiling. He was going to break this. If he acted on his feelings, he was going to break this wonderful thing he had with Ash.

"I love being with you, so it has to be great."

Setting down her bottle of pop, Emma looked up into the blinding sun, immediately recoiling. She had invited JT and Toby over for lunch, which she and Manny had prepared. It was oddly gratifying -- serving other people.

"So, Emma -- what's going on with Sean?" Manny asked, leaning over the table.

Jt smiled and mischievioulsy winked to Emma as a joke, making her laugh.

"He's probably too busy getting back with Ellie to talk to anyone," Toby said, stabbing his tofu with a stick. "He hasn't said a word to me the whole time he's been back."

"Well he's Mr. Popularity," Jt joked. "Can't expect a busy man like him to talk to little people like you."

He snatched the stick from Toby, who looked up, surprised.

"That's so gross, Jt." Manny said as she watched him stick it in Toby's ear.

Jt -- always the jokester. He was nice to have around. Toby automatically withdrew the stick from his ear, disgusted but happy at the same time. He chuckled a bit and threw it aside.

"Sean's just got his own life," Emma explained rationally. "He has his own friends now."

"Oh, you mean Mr. Bad Boy Jay Hogart -- king of Degrassi." Jt quipped, mocking Jay.

"I hate that guy," Toby added.

Talk like this didn't bother Emma anymore. Talk about Jay. Last year, she would have lost it if anyone mentioned him, but now, it was nice ot hear someone making fun of him.

"And this rave," Jt said. "I mean, does anyone actually have fun at them?"

"I've never been to one," Toby said.

"I have," Manny replied.

Emma smiled and laughed. "Yeah, and let's not talk about that."

Jt grinned. "Why, what happened?"

Emma knew all too well what happened. That had been a night that had struck a blow at her and Manny's friendship, and another blow at another particular relationship.

"Where's the sweet and sour sauce?" Manny suddenly asked, moving things around on the table to find it. "I thought I brought it out here."

"Sweet and sour sauce? Isn't that for Chinese food?"

"Not only for Chinese food." Toby answered, starting to help in the search.

"You never answered my question?"

"Guys, we need sweet and sour sauce for the chicken," Manny said.

"I'll go get it." Emma said.

The corner store wasn't that far, and besides, she wasn't going to miss much. Just Jt badgering Manny for a retelling of times gone past... come to think of it, that probably would be funny.

"What does 'ttyl' mean?"

Craig, Spinner and Marco had all gathered together for an informal band practice when Spinner decided to go to the corner store, dragging them along on his quest for spray cheese.

"It's kind of like..." Marco gave a wave to a fake friend, demonstrating the use of the phrase. "'Bye guys, ttyl.'"

Spinner's eyes narrowed as he looked up, asking sincerely, "What is that, like -- 'tantalizingly touching you later'?"

Craig threw his head back in disgust. "Ugg! Spin, are you kidding me?

He proceeded into the store, still shaking his head, and started to look around for things that might catch his interest.

"Think about it, Spin," Marco tried to explain, now walking in the store himself. "T-t-y-l. Talk to you later?"

Spinner gave a dissappointed head toss. "That's not very exciting."

"It's internet talk," Craig said. "Why would it be? Hey, did you guys see -- Emma?"

Spinner and Marco looked confused, smiling slightly.

"Did we see Emma?" Spinner laughed.

"Shut up, Spin, she's right there." Craig said, trying not to be noticed.

It was stupid -- obvious, really -- but he couldn't help asking.

"How my hair? Is it too big?"

Looking up at Craig's bush of curls, as though the answer was obvious, Spinner answered, "Uhh, yeah."

"What's so special about Emma?" Marco inquired, standing on his tiptoes to see her.

"What? Nothing -- just my dad's over her house right now."

Craig carried on with his business, trying to seem nonchalant. She was carrying sweet and sour sauce for some ridiculous reason.

"What's the sauce for?" Spinner asked, reading his mind.

"Craig."

She had spotted him. Acting like the loser he was, he looked up, trying to remain casual.

"Emma, hey. What are you doing here?"

She held up the sauce. "So are you going to the rave?"

"Why? Are you going?"

She nodded. "Yeah, Snake made arrangements to take care of baby Jack."

Craig smiled, noticing that Spinner and Marco were watching him in confusion.

"So Joey's been at our house for a while. You wanna come see him?"

"Umm, Craig was gonna hang out at my house." Marco said.

"Marco, it'll be, like, five minutes. I'll be right back, okay?"

Marco looked like he was about to say something, but Craig ignored it, knowing he was being selfish. Dropping his items on the counter, he exited with Emma.

Joey sat at the table of his two best friends, Spike and Snake. They had invited him over for lunch, when he had gracefully accepted, only now, it was a quarter past two, and he still hadn't had his lunch. His two friends were too busy analyzing their out-of-date map and marking areas to notice anything trivial like eating.

"I think it'd be nice to stop in British Columbia -- I have family that live there." Spike said, putting the salt shaker on the dot that labeled the city.

Snake laughed a bit to be polite, removing the salt shaker. "That'd be nice, Spike, but we only have so much money for gas and we have to make it to Niagra Falls with it."

The three of them had planned a vacation -- a vacation to Niagra Falls. It had started out as something only for Snake and Spike -- a sort of romantic getaway -- but they had turned it into a small reunion of high school friends and acquaintances. After asking a number of old friends to meet them at Niagra Falls that Friday, they had informed him of the event, and he jumped at the chance to wear his old fedore without being laughed at. The thing about it was that now they wanted to make all these pitstops to visit old friends and see more sights.

"Besides," Joey said, "You can see your family any old time. Let's just get where we need to go and go."

"Joey," Mrs. Nelson said, nudging the pepper out of her way, "Where's Craig, I thought he was coming?"

"Craig! Craig got all quiet weird when I asked him. Said he had to go shopping with Ash and her friends."

Snake laughed. "I bet he loved that."

Joey smiled, chewing on a pretzel. "He didn't sound too pleased."

There was suddenly the noise of the front door opening.

"Mom?"

"Hi, sweetie, we're in here." Spike said.

"Hmm, Emma, how's she doing?" Joey asked quietly.

"Oh, tons better. Loads better. It's really nice."

Emma walked into the kitchen, accompanied by Craig, sauce splattered over both of their shirts.

"What happened to you two?" Snake asked.

Emma looked over to Craig. "Someone got a little crazy with the sweet and sour sauce."

Craig giggled, putting his hand to his mouth to stop as Emma sat it down on the table. "We called a truce, I swear."

"Why haven't you guys started eating yet?" Emma asked, eyes narrowing.

"No idea." Joey mumbled.

"Well, we've just been busy. We've been planning out our trip." Snake replied. "We're off to Niagra Falls."

"Really? When?" Craig said.

"This Friday." Spike answered, standing and pulling three salads from the refrigerator. "Emma, are Jt and Toby still outside?"

"Yeah. I've just got to give them this." Emma picked up the sauce and sauntered off outside.

"So," Craig said, "You guys'll be leaving on Friday."

"Yeah, I'm gonna need you to babysit Jack."

Suddenly this insane idea popped into Craig's head, and at first he ridded himself of it, thinking it was too stupid, too half baked. But then, he though about it and --

"Umm, actually Joey, I'm going to a rave that night. I might not be back until dark."

"Craig, I'm gonna need you to watch Angela all night."

"Joey, I know, but I'm not gonna be back until, like, two in the morning because I promised Ash I would go to her house after and watch movies."

Joey then smiled. "You two gonna be doing anything I sould know about?"

Craig returned the grin. "No. I just promised her and she really wants me to come. Ask Emma -- she can spend the night if she has to. She's gonna have to babysit Jack, anyway, right Ms. Nelson? So she can bring him over our house."

Joey looked like he was taking it into consideration. "It sounds like it would work. It would all be up to Emma."

Craig felt so incredibly cunning, so sly -- yet so excited. He couldn't believe he might actually get away with this. Emma at his house for a whole night. He knew he was still with Ashley, and that he had to remain faithful to her -- he couldn't kiss Emma or anything -- so he wouldn't. He wouldn't tell her he liked her.

He just wanted the night to come quicker.

Emma stepped outside into the sunlight and placed the bottle of sauce down, claiming her spot next to Manny once more. It was obvious what they had been discussing in her absence: Craig. When she had approached with him, Manny looked baffled, Toby shocked -- Jt however, looked excited.

"So," Manny said, looking down at the table, "What's Craig doing here?"

"He was at the corner store," Emma answered, then asked innocently, "Why? What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing, he was just the last person we expected you to come waltzing home with." Jt said. "I mean, we see you go to the store, and you come back with Craig latched to your side."

Latched to her side? Emma hadn't been anywhere near Craig. As a matter of fact, she distinctly remembered him avoiding any physical contact whatsoever. Maybe that was just in her mind.

"It was just a shock, that's all." Toby added.

"Why'd you guys have all those big ketchup stains?" Manny asked, wiping a glop of sauce from Emma's neck.

"It's not ketchup," Ema laughed, pushing her hand away. "It's the sauce."

"Explains why only half's left." Jt moped, peering into the bottle.

There was the sound of a door wrenching open and Emma turned to see that it was Craig, looking extremely self aware.

"Em, I've gotta go. I've got band practice."

"It's okay, Craig. I'll see you at the rave."

Jt smiled and waved prettily to Craig as he left, Toby and Manny looking down at their plates.