Beyond Degrassi

A/N: Dude, seriously, you guys rock! Thanks so much for the Reviews! I can't help but notice the large # of JayEm people readin', so I'm getting on with the JayEm part of the story right here. Jay wasn't in the last chapter, that was Alex's POV on what happened to Jay. Here's what's really goin' down with Jay (right after the Palex bit, of course).

Part 4: Together again, Bitter Sweet Romance

"I ran into your girlfriend yesterday." Jackie said nonchalantly while she fixed her hair in the mirror. Paige had been passed out on her computer desk when Jackie had come in. Now the girl was sitting up groggy and confused, she was searching on the desk for something now. What Jackie had said didn't seem to register.

"Oh my god." Paige squealed when she found her watch. She jumped up in a rush and started tossing papers into a binder, "I'm not going to make it to class in time!"

Jackie ignored Paige's sudden panic, as much as Paige had ignored Jackie's original statement. She continued, "She so didn't look anything like your type. You and a cool tattoo artist, is there some down to earth Paige underneath the uptight prissy plastic Paige I know as my room mate?"

"Where did I put that report on Capital Intensity? I get everything done, and then I loose it. I can't believe this! I need..." Paige spotted it and threw it in the binder as well. Finally she acknowledged that Jackie was speaking to her. She was frustrated that right now, while she was late, the girl actually took interest in conversing with her. "Why are you talking to me again?" It had come out a little bit ruder than she had meant it to be.

Jackie turned to face Paige and rolled her eyes before scowling "I would never date you. I don't see why anyone ever would. You are such a bitch."

"Now that was just a little bit uncalled for." Paige scowled right back at her, taking the challenge she didn't have time for. "What is your problem?"

"I just told you I ran into your precious Alex and you completely ignored me, and then to top it off you insult me?" She picked up one of Paige's loose reports that had been left on the vanity table and tossed it. It fluttered through the air, separating into several pages before it found it's way to the floor. "I hope you do flunk out of Banting, you are a terrible room mate."

Paige swallowed hard. She tried to re-call what the girl had been talking about. Something about a tattoo artist... "How did you know it was her?"

"She had an expression a lot like the one you're wearing when I said Paige." Jackie sneered and tossed her hair over her shoulder. She walked past Paige quickly and made a show of exiting their room.

Paige gathered up the report that Jackie had flung across the room. Alex or not, she was going to loose her scholarship if she didn't get to class, and pronto. She ran all the way, and still didn't make it before the class had let out. Luckily for her, Mrs. Griffin hadn't finished packing up her stuff yet. She gasped for air as she slammed her binder down in front of the Professor.

"I did it. I finished all the work, just like I said I would." Paige started explaining in a panic.

"You're late Michalchuk, but I'll take them. We have less than a month of class left, I'd appreciate your presence for the lectures from now on."

"I'll be here. I promise. Thank you so much for all your understanding, Banting is my dream, I can't believe I almost lost it."

Of course, that was almost a lie these days. Alex was in her dreams, Banting seemed to be a background to what she really wanted. Any school could have been the background for Palex, if either of them had been willing to budge on their beliefs. Paige felt like an idiot, for not working with Alex's insecurities about the future. She wondered if Alex had come to the same conclusion, about Paige. She thought maybe that was why Alex was here. She hoped that's why Alex was here.

She turned in a few other papers that were past due, then returned to her dorm. On her night stand her phone blinked, it had been on silent. She had several texts, and even more missed calls. The battery was almost dead too. She had neglected the beloved object because of her rush to finish all those reports and essays. The blink caught her attention for the first time in days, so she checked her missed texts.

From Dave :y havent u been 2 class:

:R u ok:

From Melissa :answer your phone:

:are you dead? I want to go shopping, so climb out of that tacky grave:

:look, this is stupid. Whatever is bothering you, just get over it already:

:Hello:

:Hello:

From Robert : im sorry about what i said. can i buy you lunch:

:fine. dont answer:

From an unknown # :This message is probably going to be lost in phone cyberspace, but on the bizzare chance it isn't- Paige? Is this still your cell #:

Paige sighed. She didn't feel like dealing with any of these people. She told Dave and Melissa that she was fine, but very busy. She asked the unknown who they were. She turned the ringer back on, so she wouldn't miss any more calls or texts. She tossed the phone onto her bed and pulled out the phone book for the zillionth time in the past few weeks. This time she turned straight to tattoo parlors. There were about five listed in Kingston. Just as she had started to dial the first shop, the phone rang. She was startled, it was the unknown number.

"Hello?" She said cautiously into the phone. Since her incident with Robert at the Club, a prank call wasn't all that uncommon.

"I don't know why I assumed you would have a fancy new cell phone, with a fancy new number." Alex said sarcastically, but friendly enough. "How's the 4-year business degree plan going?"

Paige smiled a genuine smile for the first time in well over a month, "There's something very important missing from it, but I've managed to not totally mess everything up." She couldn't help smiling, finally hearing Alex's voice again made everything seem brighter "How about you? Are you still in Kingston?"

"Yeah. I was thinking we could talk about that in, like, person." Alex sounded just as happy as Paige was feeling. Paige was dizzy with the excitement of actually hearing the object of her last month's complete obsession.

"Sure hon, when and where?"

Back in good old Toronto...

Emma walked out the front door. She had no need to walk out of the basement window anymore, her mom knew she went out at night. Her mom had tried everything to stop her over the last few months. There was a stage of anger, with the ever so obvious grounding. Emma just didn't come home for two weeks, and that nipped the grounding in the butt. Then there was a stage of begging, of crying. Emma didn't come home for a month after that. Sure, Snake saw her at school when she felt like going, but that didn't matter. After school she was a phantom to the man, her step-father, and her mother. Finaly they came to an understanding, Emma would come home, but she would come and go as she pleased. She also demanded that the crying stop, she hated feeling guilty. It was like everyone was always trying to make her feel guilty, just because she cared. She really did care, about everyone, and everything. But for Emma Nelson, there was a point when she realized she wanted to care about Emma Nelson, and no one else. Just for a little while.

Maybe it had something to do with Snake getting sick again. Maybe it had something to do with the looks people gave her, knowing that she had been Anorexic. Maybe it was because she was held back a year, for fucking up while she had been anorexic. Maybe it was because of Peter, because Manny was right, Peter was a sick fuck. If Manny thought her boobs being aired on everyone's e-mail account at Degrassi was bad...

Emma, however, believed it was because she cared too much, and because she trusted the wrong people. Her new friends knew how to help her really live. She marched into the Ravine, more than ready for a hit with Kyle. She was kind of seeing Kyle, she thought. Kyle wasn't standing at the edge of the Ravine waiting for her. She scanned the area, and to her surprise instead of Kyle being around, old Jay Hogart was back. He stood when he saw her walk into the Ravine. She let a self satisfied smile cross her lips. Jay had been her original introduction to this wonderful place.

"Green Peace, I hear your a regular around here now, eh?" Jay greeted her with a friendly handshake and a sideways smile.

She cocked her head to the side and studied his eyes carefully while she spoke to him, "Jason Hogart. It's been a long time, word had it you went to jail."

He kept eye contact with her, those amazing brown eyes had a way of making him feel absolutely crazy. A giddy kind of crazy, something he wasn't used to feeling. He laughed a little at the jail comment, it wasn't the first time someone had asked that since he had gotten back. "Nah, just took a little trip east." When she raised an eyebrow at his story, he elaborated, "I was on a little mission to get my ex her true love back. Sadly, it turned out to be mission impossible."

"Then you're back?" Emma asked in an Emma seductive tone. Looking deep into his eyes she noted first off that his eyes were clear, he wasn't on anything. It was refreshing to talk to a man around here who wasn't so drugged up he hardly knew what you were saying to him. As for his mission to get Alex back with Paige, she couldn't care less.

"I might be" Jay nodded, going along with her flirting. He could really get to liking the new Emma. She hadn't broken eye contact with him yet, and he felt something electric in that look. Yet, at the same time, something seemed very wrong.

"Emma!" Amy yelled out urgently then ran up to the two of them, whatever was so urgent was lost by the sight of Jay "Jay? Is that really you?"

"Amy." Jay nodded to her, not with a smile this time. She had just ruined the moment.

"The hottest bad boy of Degrassi Street is back" Emma winked at Jay while she spoke to Amy. Jay hid his smile with his hand, feigning an itchy nose. "Speaking of hot bad boys, have you seen mine lately?"

That wiped the smile right off of Jay's face again, he glared without meaning to. His fist tightened. It was just his luck, some other bastard already had the girl.

"Oh Em! That's what I was coming to ask you about..." Amy looked a little ashamed to have been so easily side tracked, "Did he make it?"

"Make what?" Emma asked seriously, a little bit of anger edging in.

"You didn't even know!" Amy gasped, "Emma! Kyle OD'd. It was this afternoon, he was taken out of here in an ambulance."

"What?" Emma yelled, now furious, "No! No!"

Amy went to comfort her, but she was having none of it. She pushed Amy away and started pacing.

"That fucker! That bastard!" Emma continued to scream while she paced, "He had all our stash. He had it all. If he isn't dead already, I'm going to kill him!"

Amy backed away, and gave Jay a look that said she really hadn't expected this reaction. Jay and Amy watched as she broke down and cried, screaming periodically about how she was fucked. Jay asked Amy in whispers to tell him what she knew, without the rumors included.

"She was seeing this dealer, Kyle Larson. You knew him." She explained.

"Kyle? He was a smack dealer, that's not what she's talking about is it? She's not... a junkie?" Jay already knew the answer before Amy nodded that Emma had been doing junk. Jay was livid. Green Peace, savior of the environment, protector of the innocent... now just a fucking junkie. He slammed his hand down on the Picnic table and one of the boards cracked loudly. It shut Emma up, she glared at him from the place on the ground where she had started sobbing.

"Get up Emma." He demanded, grabbing her arm and forcing her up, "We're leaving, now."

"Don't touch me, you asshole!" She struggled out of his grip, "You don't know me, don't you ever touch me! Ever!"

"I know that this isn't you!" Jay yelled back at her, gesturing widely at the predicament that she is in.

"FUCK YOU!" She spat at him, and then smiled evilly in triumph.

Jay wiped the spit off of his face and popped a creak in his neck. It looked like Jay was going to be doing a bad deed, in order to do a far greater deed tonight. Talking was done now, he snatched her under his arm and secured both her arms so she wouldn't escape again. Without question from his former friends he dragged Emma Nelson, the girl of lost innocence, straight out of the Ravine.