Wesley walked into Degrassi with a sense of newfound confidence. Years ago he stumbled around all geeky and awkward, now he was the type of guy that Anya MacPherson wanted to catch up with.

He hoped it wasn't some fluke — Anya had insisted that it wasn't, and that she would definitely be down to talk again. Definitely. He felt a wave of excitement come over him. That word had never sounded so wonderful.

Dave's voice broke through the crowded buzz of the Degrassi hallways. "Yo, Wes!" He called out, interrupting Wesley's thoughts and catching his attention immediately.

"What's good, Dizzle?" Wesley greeted his friend with a reference from their old Three Tenners song. Boy, they were nerdy back then.

Dave grinned at the reference, dapping Wesley up as they met in the middle of the hallway. "How was talking to your dream girl last night? I saw that you were online way later than usual. It's weird, though. You didn't respond to my message, though."

"It was just a picture of a kangaroo," Wesley responded simply, thinking back to the random message that he received from Dave a few minutes before he logged off. "How was I supposed to respond?"

"I don't like being left on read!" Dave exclaimed. "Never again, aight Wizzle?" Dave referenced back to Wesley's short-lived nickname.

Wesley nodded in agreement. "Understood." He then remembered the initial question Dave had asked. "About last night…"

Adam Torres walked down the hall and caught Dave's attention, interrupting Wesley's sentence. "Radio segment ideas, big D?"

"He doesn't really make you call him that, does he?" Wesley asked Adam, cringing slightly at Dave's nickname.

"I don't mind. I think it's funny." Adam responded, stepping up to Dave and sizing him up. "The nickname is supposed to be ironic, isn't it Dave?" He smiled.

Dave looked slightly embarrassed but played it off. Dave had gotten a little bit better at not taking everything personally, Wesley observed.

Taking the opportunity to change the subject, Dave prodded Wesley once more. "So, you and Anya?"

Adam raised a brow, looking Wesley up and down. "You and Anya? Like, MacPherson? Friends with Holly J Sinclair and Fiona?"

Wesley nodded, then felt the need to clarify. "I mean, we're not dating or anything, or even going on a date… yet." He stumbled on his words a bit. "We just talked last night. For hours."

"What sorts of things does Anya MacPherson talk about after dark?" Dave inquired, returning to his insinuations.

"We talked about all sorts of things!" Wesley responded cheerily, deciding not to play into Dave's innuendos. "She's working at Little Miss Steaks and going to Seneca College. She just applied for veterinarian school! I'm pretty pumped for her." He allowed himself to gush.

He was about to tell them how she had an appointment with the disability center for her dyslexia but then he worried that was too confidential. He thought about how cool it is that everyone's brain works differently. Like Connor's Asperger's — though the correct term was actually autistic now, he remembered.

"Hello? Earth to Wes?" Dave interrupted Wesley's train of thought. "When did it get sexy?" Dave asked, raising his eyebrows and grinning. Adam elbowed him in the ribs.

"Sexy? It was just an innocent conversation, Dave," Wesley glared, but then began thinking of Anya in that way for just a moment. The dream he had about her a few years back… How fantastic she looked on their first and only date… He shook those thoughts away for now. "She's really cool and down to earth. Sweet... Smart, too."

"Someone's in love," Adam teased. "Good luck, Wes. I gotta get to class, which my ex girlfriend is in! Wish me luck!" Adam facepalmed. Wesley was surprised to hear Adam had scored a girlfriend. Last time Wesley was around, Adam was struggling pretty hard to fit in. The fact that he had a girlfriend at Degrassi, even if it was now an ex, meant that Adam's social status must have gotten a little bit higher.

"You and Becky broke up?" Dave asked.

"Yeah, she was in Florida this summer and I got jealous of this guy she kept hanging out with... Todd," Adam grimaced, "She felt like I couldn't trust her anymore, and honestly, at the time I couldn't. So... we ended things." Adam looked down as he recalled the breakup.

"I'm sorry Adam," Dave patted him on the back.

Wesley didn't know Adam too well and he didn't know Becky at all, but he could still relate and commiserate. "I know how you feel, dude. It gets better," Wesley attempted to reassure him. "I promise. I thought I'd never get over Hannah but here I am!"

"And you're over her?" Adam asked.

Wesley paused for a moment. "I think so…" He wasn't quite sure. He knew that he didn't think about Hannah nearly as much, and he was excited at the prospect of a future with Anya… Did that mean he was over it? Was there ever such a thing as truly over it if you truly loved the person? He thought back to his parents for a moment. They were completely separated and seemed over one another — did that mean they never cared? These thoughts were way too much for a simple hallway conversation, so Wesley kept it simple. "I think I'm over her, and if I'm not, I'm at least on my way." He offered Adam a polite smile.

"Thanks guys. I'm sure I'll be okay in time." Adam smiled before heading to class.

"Catch you later!" Wesley waved at Adam, then turned to Dave. "Who's Becky?"

Dave began to explain with a slightly sour face. "She was this uber-Christian girl who appeared out of thin air from Florida and was like, mad homophobic about the play Eli Goldsworthy put on last year." There was definitely some contempt in Dave's voice, Wesley noticed.

"What play was it?" Wesley questioned what story could have attracted such hatred from any member of the student body.

"Well..." Dave started. "It was called Romeo and Jules. It was like Romeo and Juliet, but Juliet was…"

Wesley caught on. "A guy. Two guys. I guess that's kind of cool, isn't it? Definitely modern."

"It was aight." Dave flashed his trademark cocky smile, pointing to a poster that was hanging on the wall in the hallway which had a photo of Dave and a younger, slightly chubby boy caressing one another's face. "I heard the guy who played Romeo killed it. He even won a talent competition and got a two episode arc on 'West Drive'." Dave bragged.

"I'm assuming you played Romeo," Wesley said, examining the poster from where he was standing. Seeing his friend's name and face plastered all over the school was actually pretty cool. "So… lead of the school play, West Drive actor... I guess you're sort of like, the man around school now?" Wesley was genuinely proud of his friend. Popularity always seemed to be Dave's main goal, after all. "Are you and Alli still going hot and heavy?"

Dave's face twisted slightly. "Yeah, I mean, you know…" He sort of laughed it off, changing the subject like there was something he was trying to avoid talking about. "Why don't you tell me more about your chat session with Anya. I might need to read it to believe."

"That's enough about Anya for now," Wesley decided. Nobody else needed to know the contents of his messages with Anya, even if things were completely innocent. It felt more special if it was just between Wesley and Anya anyway. "Let's get to class before the bell rings, Big D."

Dave smirked, "Don't make me tase you again!"

Wesley laughed, "Don't make me give you another purple nurple!"

"You better not!" Dave shoved Wesley playfully before they headed off to class.

...

During class, Wesley couldn't stop thinking about their conversation with Adam. He felt a sigh of relief that Hannah had transferred to another school last year. Wesley thought it must be painful to see your ex at school day after day right after breaking up. He thought about his own jealousy of Liam, Hannah's childhood friend who used to have a crush on her. Those feelings were hard to shake and ignore.

After the breakup, Wesley had to unfollow Hannah's FaceRange page because every time there was a picture of her and Liam, his mind raced trying to figure out if they had started dating. Wesley still cared about Hannah and hoped to one day be her friend, but he wasn't quite there yet.

His mind drifted back to Anya and his heartbeat sped up. She did that to him every time. Wesley wasn't sure if they were going to be "more than friends" or not, but just being in contact with her again made him happy.

As Wesley headed to his locker between class periods, he happened to notice Connor standing outside of a classroom, seemingly waiting for someone to exit. Wesley slowed down his pace a bit, curious who Connor was waiting for.

Just then, a beautiful bubbly blonde who Wesley identified as Jenna, exited the classroom and immediately wrapped her arms around Connor's neck, greeting him with a kiss on the cheek.

Wesley was honestly a bit shocked. Not because Connor didn't deserve a pretty girlfriend, it just seemed like sort of a...mis-match. Last Wesley knew, Jenna was relatively popular and trying to pursue a music career. Though Wesley was never one for those singing competition shows, he had seen the season that Jenna performed on. Did Jenna still have a baby? Wesley wondered silently, watching as Connor and Jenna hugged one more time before parting ways. After Jenna walked away with her friends, Wesley approached his friend.

"Jenna, huh? How did that happen?" Wesley smiled. He was definitely a bit confused about how they'd ended up together but overall he was just excited that Connor had his first girlfriend — not counting that creepy older woman from Realm of Doom.

"Well, first Jenna kissed me on the cheek because Luke was making fun of me after I tripped and dropped my stuff in the middle of the hallway. I overheard him laughing and asking her if she thought anyone would ever care about me." Connor began to explain.

Wesley winced. "Who's Luke?"

"He's just one of the biggest jerks at Degrassi," Connor explained. "Along with all of his hockey buddies. Luke might be the worst of all the jocks. Either him or Owen."

"Owen is still around?" Wesley felt a sliver of fear and disgust enter his bloodstream. He had never received direct harassment from Owen but he had heard some horror stories.

Connor nodded. "Hockey jerks pretty much took over the school last year. "They're just…" Connor seemed to search for the right word for a moment, but came up short. "You were asking about Jenna, not Owen, weren't you?"

Wesley shifted his focus back to the initial conversation. There was definitely part of him that was distracted by the idea of the school being terrorized by hockey jocks, but he still truly wanted to hear the rest of Connor's story.

"So, I bought her flowers and a teddy bear and asked her on a date. She said she couldn't at first, so I asked if she was seeing anyone else. She wasn't, so I asked if she liked hanging out with me when we were in Romeo and Jules."

Wesley felt a pang of jealousy that he missed out on being a part of the school musical. He could easily picture himself as part of the tech crew.

"I asked if she thinks I'm attractive. I took my glasses off and she said I'm cute with and without glasses." Connor seemed like he was gushing a bit, which was something he'd never seen or expected from Connor. Connor never came across as much of a romantic in Wesley's eyes. Wesley was glad his friend had found a girl who made him happy though. "Finally I said, 'so there's no reason to say no, is there?'" Connor seemed to be recalling and relaying every moment. "She said 'I guess not, it's a date!' and the rest was history. Pretty recent history, of course." Connor clarified his euphemism directly after using it. Some things never changed.

"Man, you're smooth!" Wesley laughed. "I want to ask Anya out, but I'm not sure how to plan the perfect date." He admitted. "Our date after the auction didn't exactly go as planned..." Wesley grimaced at the memory of taking pills to 'last long' before his date with Anya.

"I took Jenna to space on our first date," Connor said.

Wesley widened his eyes. "You did what? I don't really think I can afford that for me and Anya…"

"Not literally," Connor seemed surprised that he wasn't the one who needed things explained to him this time. "I set up this simulator with the help of Mr. Simpson and I rented these cool orange space-suits. It was awesome."

"She loved it?" Wesley asked, wondering just how much it cost to rent space-suits, which was something he'd never thought of or even considered.

Connor grinned, seeming proud of himself and confident. "I asked her if she wanted to kiss and she asked me if it was that obvious." He blushed slightly. "It was. I've never felt like a girl actually wanted to kiss me before — especially one as cool and pretty as Jenna."

Wesley went to fist-bump Connor and was met with Connor's hand spread open, ready for a high-five. They never could quite get the hang of that. They both laughed a bit before Wesley continued. "I think that's awesome, Connor! I'm so happy for you! Whatever happened to her ex, KC?"

"Oh, he moved to BC a while back with his mom to protect themselves when his dad got out of prison. Jenna and I have video chatted him a few times."

"And he's happy for you guys?" Wesley asked.

Connor nodded. "Surprisingly, yeah. He was a bit shocked at first, but he and Jenna are ancient history. Now he's happy for us."

"Aww," Wesley smiled, feeling more hopeful about being friends with Hannah and Liam one day.

"It also helps that he got a new girlfriend in BC," Connor added. "She's hot, well not as hot as Jenna - er to me at least. Attractiveness is subjective," Connor mentally calculated the line between complimentary and offensive. "She seems great." Connor finally decided on appropriate words to say. Wesley was proud that Connor had at least partially picked up on what was and wasn't appropriate to say— at least when it came to women.

"That's great!" Wesley smiled. The bell rang, and on his way to class he thought about what Connor said: "attractiveness is subjective." It made him feel better. Before Hannah, he felt like girls only liked tall, muscular guys. I'll find someone again, he thought to himself. And even if Anya doesn't like him back, he reminded himself that it's okay to be single. His uncle is single and he seems perfectly happy. Plus, sometimes relationships just cause drama - Wesley's mind drifted to his parents' rocky relationship. His eyes welled up, but he quickly wiped his eyes. At least they are happier now, he hoped.

...

Wesley always liked to stay back for a moment after the last bell of the school day had rang. He never liked the way students funneled out of the classroom door, pushing and shoving one another to rush out into the even more crowded hallway. He reached his hand into his pocket and checked his phone. Usually Wesley's screen was littered with notifications from the various mobile games that he played. Today, though, there was a bright and shiny FaceRange message notification from none other than Anya MacPherson.

'How's your second day back at Degrassi?' Anya sent an hour earlier. Wesley felt like he was the only teenager at Degrassi who didn't check his phone during class. As he was reading the message, another popped up. 'Enjoying being a panther again? :)'

Wesley quickly responded. 'Not too bad, just finished for the day. And yes!' He added a panther emoji. He of course went into overdrive for a moment thinking about the implications of Anya's smiley face. Did it mean something? Anya was an overall friendly person — maybe it meant nothing. Wesley really wanted to know, if he was being honest.

The classroom was now empty, which prompted Wesley to finally get up and gather his school supplies and head out. He would have to continue messaging with Anya after he found his uncle and got a ride home from school.