Chapter Four
Paige sat her bed, flipping through old yearbooks from when she attended Degrassi Community School. They weren't placed in any specific order, that way Paige could find humour looking at past and present pictures, comparing what her friends were, and what they had become. She grabbed a random yearbook that lay across her legs, and checked the year. 2004-2005, Grade Eleven. She delicately turned every page, making sure not to miss a single picture that could spark her memory.
Paige had always loved Degrassi, for better or for worse, she usually ran things and had amazingly close friends she knew she could count on; not that she needed it. Paige was independent, but her one weakness was caused by horrible Dean. Long ago, she had forgiven herself, and now was not the time to be reminded of Dean or any horrible memory.
Finally arriving at the teacher's photo section, Paige Michalchuck glanced over every one. Mrs. Hatzilakos, Mrs. Kwan, Mr. Oleander...
Paige blinked several times, trying to concentrate, trying to keep her eyes open. She felt so exhausted, not knowing why. She used her arm and right hand to keep her head up, desperately avoiding being reprimanded by a teacher.
"Today, I thought we'd talk about bias in the media, how the news sometimes twists the facts." Matt Oleander began in Media Immersion class.
Hazel Aden turned towards her best friend, and noticed Paige's laziness. Mr. Oleander continued obliviously.
"You doing the nod of sleep, it's not attractive." she whispered.
Paige rolled her and lazily tried to sit upright. She return Hazel's remark with a witty response.
"So avert your eyes, evil Mary kept me for the late shift."
Paige blinked hard, trying to focus.
"Paige?" Mr. Oleander called.
She turned to face him, wondering what he was going to ask. She wasn't in the mood to answer, and even if she had, it would have been highly unlikely for her to answer being brain-dead that day.
"Can you tell me how that's different from outright lying?"
She hesitated, but finally came up with a decent response.
"To lie is to present a falsehood; bias is telling the truth, just a version of the truth."
Matt nodded.
"Good."
He put his hand down on the table, releasing a folded paper from it.
"Okay, so back to why pop stars marry once they release a new CD..." He said to the class.
Paige, meanwhile, took the paper, and unfolded it. It was a letter from Matt, asking her to meet him. She smiled to herself, finally something going right today.
Twenty minutes later, the bell rang, and twenty three minutes later, Paige and Matt were kissing in the place Matt had suggested on the note. He ran his hands over her lower back, slowly rising them to finally tangle them in her long blonde hair. Meanwhile, Paige ran her fingers through Matt's hair as she looked up into him. She pushed her hands on his chest, and stopped for a moment.
"I never had a teacher pass me a note before." she remarked, teasing him.
He kissed her briefly, and stopped to look around the place.
"Look, I know this place isn't romantic, but it seems like every time we try to get together, there's always something--
He was interrupted by the noise of the door trying to be pushed open, and Matt pushed against it to prevent whoever was on the opposite side from entering. When it stopped, he ran his hands through his thick hair, and returned to Paige, kissing her passionately.
She stopped him a second time, but kept her face inches away from him.
"Can I come over tonight?" she softly asked, whispering it like it was a secret only he could know, which was in fact the case.
"Mmmmm...maybe..." Matt answered in between kisses.
Paige sighed. She grabbed a pen that rested on top of the table next to her bed, and made a big "X" on top of Matt's photograph. Satisfied, she smiled and thought "Perfect". Moving on through the yearbook, she stopped and glanced at several photos. Seeing Emma's, she remembered Rick, and how Emma supported her... that was until it started getting out of control. Paige agreed that Rick did deserve what he got near the beginning, but some people took it too far... maybe that's why he brought the gun. She started tearing up, trying to imagine the suffering Emma must of had, having a gun pointed to her... Sean saving her...
Ordinarily, even under the shooting's circumstances, Paige would have experienced a tad of jealousy towards Emma because of what Sean had done, but she had been saved too. Taking her senior year yearbook, she flipped (a little less carelessly this time) through the pages until she found him. Her Knight In Shining Armour.
