Chapter One - That's What Friends Are For

After much negation, Emma talked Manny out of the bathroom stall. "School's over," Emma informed her. "Why don't we go home and watch some movies? We could call Craig and talk to him, or e-mail him. We could have some friends over," she suggested. "Caitlin is baby-sitting Jack with Joey, while mom and Snake go out on a date. We could have a small get-together, if that would make you feel any better."

Manny shook her head no. "No thanks, Em," she softly replied. "I'm not up to hanging-out with a crowd, or calling up Craig and telling him about my shitty day." The two of them walked through the bathroom doors and out into the hallway. Everyone seemed to be clearing out their lockers, and getting ready to leave for the weekend. "But, that movie idea doesn't sound so bad." Emma smiled down at her shorter friend.

The two girls walked to Emma's house together, the house Manny had been living in ever since her father kicked her out of her own residence. It became a home to her, though, and Emma's mom, Christine, had treated her as if she was her own daughter, but that wasn't surprising since Manny always felt like she was a part of the Nelson family. Snake, Emma's step-father, and their school teacher had always treated Manny kindly, also.

Emma reached into her jean jacket pocket and pulled out her keys. "I can't believe Darcy of all people would say something like that to you. She seems really nice. I mean, she's in that Christian club, isn't she? Don't they teach you in there not to judge other's?" Emma opened the door wide, and let Manny in first. As Manny walked passed, she just shrugged. "Well, I don't think it's fair. Maybe we should have a protest about it. You know, a protest about judging other people and stuff like that. What do you think?"

Manny plopped down on the couch, and half-laughed at her friend's idea. "Emma Nelson, the leader of all the useless protests." Emma flashed her an 'I'm serious' face. "I'm sorry, Em, but it would be just a waste of time. No one at that school cares about my feelings, I've accepted that by now. It's all fine. I mean, we only have a year left at Degrassi anyway."

Emma sighed and walked into the kitchen, where the door to the basement was. "A whole year to make everything worse," Emma replied, not giving up on this topic. She opened the door, and waited for Manny to follow her. Soon, the brunette girl was right behind her. "But, I can't make you do something you don't want to do, and I know that. I just want you to know that I'm here for you no matter what."

The two girls reached the bottom of the stairs, Emma wandered into the bathroom, while Manny plopped down on the bed. "Em, I already do know that. You don't have to start a protest about it. Plus, a protest would just make everything worse. They'd make fun of me even more. I'd be another Rick."

"Manny, you're nothing like Rick. Rick was a psycho, who came to school and shot Jimmy. Not to mention almost killed me...and Sean!" Emma opened the door to the restroom and walked out. Emma sat down next to Manny and smiled over towards her. "How would you be another Rick?"

Manny sighed and looked away for a second. "Well, because Rick was made fun of all the time. I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want to become Degrassi's newest joke. I just want to be me, and move on with my life. I want to be known as Manny Santos, not the girl who slept with Craig when he was seeing Ashley! That was two years ago, when will people drop it?" Manny half-laughed again, and threw her hand up in the air. "Oh, that's right. Everyone blames me for Paige and Spinner breaking up, too. I'm like the Yoko Ono of Degrassi."

Emma placed her hand on Manny's shoulder, to show her yet again that she was there for her. "Hey, why don't we go watch some movies now? We could go upstairs and watch them. I could make some popcorn, and we could just chill. You know, forgetting about what happened today for at least a couple of hours?" Manny nodded and smiled back. "Okay, I'll go upstairs and start making the popcorn. You can pick out the movies." Emma jumped up and off the bed. "All of my movies are under the bed, okay?"

Manny nodded. She waited until Emma hurried up the stairs to pick out the movies. Once Emma was gone, she rolled off the bed, she laid down on her stomach and searched with her eyes under the bed. Something besides the DVDs caught her eyes, though. Manny reached her hand under the bed and pulled it out. Dusting it off some, Manny began to read the words on the front. "Emma's pictures," she read out-loud. She flipped it open and saw pictures of Emma, J.T. and herself from when they were just four-years-old. As she flipped through more pages, she noticed their ages matured. It was mostly her and Emma, though. There were pictures of J.T., too, though, and Emma's mom. Without looking at every page, she turned to the very last page. There was only one picture on that page; a picture of Emma, J.T., Toby and herself only a few years ago, back in grade eight. A single tear fell from her eye.